I-10 expansion between San Antonio and Houston

[Bobby5280]

I don't mind the service plazas in the median all that much. But I would prefer the more elaborate design where the plaza is built over the highway and has exits and parking areas flanking the left and right of the main lanes of the Interstate. No left exits with that approach.

The I-44 service plaza near Vinita is fairly unique. At one time it had what was considered the world's largest McDonald's location. The recently re-built plaza has handful of restaurants in it along with a convenience store and tourist info stuff.

[Rothman]

I don't like plazas where you can't reverse direction.

[MaxConcrete]

Bids were opened today for the next section to be upgraded to a minimum of 3x3. This section is from east of the Colorado River, westward to SH 71, including a new interchange at SH 71. Pulice Construction won't sleep well tonight knowing they underbid the next bid lowest bid by $105 million.

This project includes a new 8-lane bridge over the Colorado River on a new alignment. About 1 mile of existing alignment immediately east of the Colorado River will be abandoned (although I don't know the eventual plan for it).

For many years - actually decades! - there has been a need to widen I-10 from Houston to the SH 71 split. With this project, it will finally get done.

County:   COLORADO   Let Date:   05/03/24
Type:   WIDEN ROAD - ADD LANES   Seq No:   3201
Time:   0 X   Project ID:   F 2B24(075)
Highway:   IH 10   Contract #:   05243201
Length:   1.727   CCSJ:   0271-01-083
Limits:   
From:   COLORADO RIVER BRIDGE   Check:   $100,000
To:   US 90 (ALLEYTON RD SOUTH)   Misc Cost:   
Estimate   $469,969,329.15   % Over/Under   Company
Bidder 1   $439,895,580.53   -6.40%   PULICE CONSTRUCTION, INC.
Bidder 2   $545,355,544.63   +16.04%   WEBBER, LLC
Bidder 3   $551,244,651.17   +17.29%   WILLIAMS BROTHERS CONSTRUCTION CO., INC.

[thisdj78]

Bids were opened today for the next section to be upgraded to a minimum of 3x3. This section is from east of the Colorado River, westward to SH 71, including a new interchange at SH 71. Pulice Construction won't sleep well tonight knowing they underbid the next bid lowest bid by $105 million.

This project includes a new 8-lane bridge over the Colorado River on a new alignment. About 1 mile of existing alignment immediately east of the Colorado River will be abandoned (although I don't know the eventual plan for it).

For many years - actually decades! - there has been a need to widen I-10 from Houston to the SH 71 split. With this project, it will finally get done.

County:   COLORADO   Let Date:   05/03/24
Type:   WIDEN ROAD - ADD LANES   Seq No:   3201
Time:   0 X   Project ID:   F 2B24(075)
Highway:   IH 10   Contract #:   05243201
Length:   1.727   CCSJ:   0271-01-083
Limits:   
From:   COLORADO RIVER BRIDGE   Check:   $100,000
To:   US 90 (ALLEYTON RD SOUTH)   Misc Cost:   
Estimate   $469,969,329.15   % Over/Under   Company
Bidder 1   $439,895,580.53   -6.40%   PULICE CONSTRUCTION, INC.
Bidder 2   $545,355,544.63   +16.04%   WEBBER, LLC
Bidder 3   $551,244,651.17   +17.29%   WILLIAMS BROTHERS CONSTRUCTION CO., INC.

Any indication of how different the intersection with SH71 will be?

Also, I wonder why the need for new alignment east of and over the Colorado River.

[Anthony_JK]

Found this link to TxDOT which includes the schematics:

https://www.txdot.gov/projects/hearings-meetings/yoakum/archive/092518.html 

[DJStephens]

Bids were opened today for the next section to be upgraded to a minimum of 3x3. This section is from east of the Colorado River, westward to SH 71, including a new interchange at SH 71. Pulice Construction won't sleep well tonight knowing they underbid the next bid lowest bid by $105 million.


County:   COLORADO   Let Date:   05/03/24
Type:   WIDEN ROAD - ADD LANES   Seq No:   3201
Time:   0 X   Project ID:   F 2B24(075)
Highway:   IH 10   Contract #:   05243201
Length:   1.727   CCSJ:   0271-01-083
Limits:   
From:   COLORADO RIVER BRIDGE   Check:   $100,000
To:   US 90 (ALLEYTON RD SOUTH)   Misc Cost:   
Estimate   $469,969,329.15   % Over/Under   Company
Bidder 1   $439,895,580.53   -6.40%   PULICE CONSTRUCTION, INC.
Bidder 2   $545,355,544.63   +16.04%   WEBBER, LLC
Bidder 3   $551,244,651.17   +17.29%   WILLIAMS BROTHERS CONSTRUCTION CO., INC.

That does seem quite bizarre.  Why the first two bids are so far apart.  Know an individual who is employed by Pulice, maybe could get some inside information.   Maybe.     

[longhorn]

Why the change of right of way?

[Bobby5280]

The new 8-lane bridge over the Colorado River will need bigger, heavier duty piers and foundations. That kind of thing can't just be patched into the existing ROW over/near the existing piers. The new bridge would have a much wider footprint. Replacing bridges in place might put new piers too close to existing piers. There has to be enough separation for the soil and bedrock to remain stable.

[webny99]

Why the change of right of way?

In addition to what Bobby5280 mentioned, the original bridges don't look wide enough to reconstruct in phases that would allow four lanes to remain open throughout the project, so it may have made more sense logistically to use a totally new alignment. The current alignment also has a pair of curves that could be more or less eliminated by shifting the bridge slightly south.

[Bobby5280]

Another nice thing about building the new Colorado River bridge on a new alignment is the whole thing could be built both faster and better. The bridge project wouldn't have to inch along, having to work around existing traffic. There wouldn't be nearly as much shifting traffic back and forth from one set of lanes to another.

Has a final alignment been chosen for the Colorado River bridge? The 2018 schematic posted earlier showed 2 preliminary design alternatives. I-10 goes from a 2x2 configuration to newly widened 3x3 build around 15 miles East of the TX-71 interchange in Columbus.

Even though the new Colorado River bridge is proposed to have 8 lanes it could end up being like the I-10 bridge over the Brazos River a little farther East. It has 8 lanes, but the outer lanes are dotted rather than striped to warn of the lane drop at the next exit.

[Chris]

Huge distribution centers are popping up along I-10 west of Houston. It's not surprising that truck traffic will surge with developments of this scale.



Ross Stores opened a mega distribution center, a rough estimate puts it at around 3,000 parking spots for trucks/trailers. Their employee parking is probably over 1,500 spots. They say that it is now the largest employer in Waller County.




Also, Fulshear was named the 11th largest gaining city in the country from 2022 to 2023. It's located west of Houston in the same area.





https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/subcounty-population-estimates.html

[ski-man]

Also, Fulshear was named the 11th largest gaining city in the country from 2022 to 2023. It's located west of Houston in the same area.





https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/subcounty-population-estimates.html

I can't believe how much that area south/southwest of Katy has grown. When I lived there in the 90's & early 00's it was just a small country town.

[Bobby5280]

Huge distribution centers are popping up along I-10 west of Houston. It's not surprising that truck traffic will surge with developments of this scale.

The growth is impressive. They probably should have had the 4x4 lanes configuration on I-10 extend farther West (to perhaps Sealy) rather than let it end at Katy Mills.

The same logistics center growth is happening, perhaps on a bigger scale North of Fort Worth near Texas Motor Speedway, Alliance Airport and the Alliance BNSF rail yard. It's amazing how many new logistics buildings have appeared on the landscape there in the past several years. Google Earth shows more and more are in the process of being built, from land being cleared and graded to new foundations being visible.

I think TX DOT and local planners have been caught flat-footed by the new development. Add all the new housing subdivisions getting built nearby. TX-114 is going to have a traffic bomb dropped on it. The freeway upgrade from Roanoke to I-35W is NOT going to be enough. They're gonna have to make TX-114 a freeway out to US-287. And they're probably going to have to build a 5-level stack interchange at the TX-114/I-35W volleyball arrangement. So much stuff is built around there already (Buc-ee's, Tanger Outlets, the race track, etc). The rapid growth has Fort Worth poised to pass Austin in city limits population and beat Austin to the 1 million mark.

[MaxConcrete]

Huge distribution centers are popping up along I-10 west of Houston. It's not surprising that truck traffic will surge with developments of this scale.

The growth is impressive. They probably should have had the 4x4 lanes configuration on I-10 extend farther West (to perhaps Sealy) rather than let it end at Katy Mills.

I-10 will be widened to 10 lanes from Katy to Brookshire. It will have 8 regular lanes and 2 concurrent-flow HOV lanes. The project has provisions for continuous frontage roads (particularly westbound which lacks a frontage road), but I seem to recall the frontage roads are not included in the initial phases of projects. The first project, listed at $250 million, is slated to receive bids in June 2025. Other projects should follow soon after.

[jgb191]

It's mystifying that Katy's population is listed at only about twenty thousand people, from the way it has developed the last couple of decades it seems like it broke six-figures by now.  In fact Ft. Bend county (which Katy is in) is fast approaching a million people.

[Chris]

https://publicbiapps.katyisd.org/PublicDashboard/PublicDashboard.aspx

The Katy Independent School District has 96,000 students, so that would put the Katy population at 300,000 or more?

[Echostatic]

Katy city and Katy ISD have very different boundaries and the latter is significantly larger.

Same goes for Katy city and the area that people generally refer to as "Katy." Most of the area is unincorporated and not even part of a Census-designated place much less Katy proper.

[thisdj78]

It's mystifying that Katy's population is listed at only about twenty thousand people, from the way it has developed the last couple of decades it seems like it broke six-figures by now.  In fact Ft. Bend county (which Katy is in) is fast approaching a million people.

You're thinking of Greater Katy which indeed does have 300K residents:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Katy

[Bobby5280]

I-10 will be widened to 10 lanes from Katy to Brookshire. It will have 8 regular lanes and 2 concurrent-flow HOV lanes.

It's good to hear they're going to further widen that portion of I-10. Just to be clear on the HOV lanes, when you say concurrent flow does that mean the lanes won't be barrier separated and be HOV-only during rush periods? I'm imagining single HOV lanes for each direction of traffic. Is that right?

They should still widen I-10 to 4x4 to just past Sealy (a little farther West past Brookshire).

[MaxConcrete]

I-10 will be widened to 10 lanes from Katy to Brookshire. It will have 8 regular lanes and 2 concurrent-flow HOV lanes.

It's good to hear they're going to further widen that portion of I-10. Just to be clear on the HOV lanes, when you say concurrent flow does that mean the lanes won't be barrier separated and be HOV-only during rush periods? I'm imagining single HOV lanes for each direction of traffic. Is that right?

They should still widen I-10 to 4x4 to just past Sealy (a little farther West past Brookshire).

Correct, when I say concurrent flow I mean no barrier. I would expect HOV only during peak traffic periods.

The schematic cross section shows a 14-foot-wide inner shoulder, 14-foot-wide HOV lane and 6-foot-wide buffer between the managed lane and regular lanes. That's 34 feet, which is equivalent to two regular 12-foot-wide lanes and a standard 10-foot-wide shoulder.

However, those dimensions apply only on the full rebuild section to the west of Pin Oak Road. The managed lanes are being retrofitted into existing pavement from Pin Oak Road to Mason Road by narrowing all lanes to 11 feet. Ugh, I hate it when TxDOT takes a high-quality freeway and turns it into a low-quality freeway by restriping to narrow lanes.

[Bobby5280]

Yeah, 11 foot wide lanes just, ugh....they just suck. It's yet another thing TX DOT should not be doing (I hate those 1-lane barrier separated HOV/express lanes too).

So many people drive huge vehicles now. I drive a full size Silverado that has a crew cab, but my pickup gets dwarfed by some of these other trucks and SUVs barreling down the highway. With 11' wide lanes it feels like the vehicles are going to break off their side view mirrors and trade paint. It gets scary when driving at fast speeds. It makes me think of the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds flying in formation -except motorists on the freeways aren't nearly as good as those jet pilots.