State Highway 225 - La Porte / Pasadena Freeways

Texas State Highway 225

SH 255 follows the LaPorte Freeway east from IH 610 at Harrisburg / Manchester to the Pasadena city line by the Park Place neighborhood in Houston. East across the Pasadena city line, SH 255 transitions onto the Pasadena Freeway en route to Deer Park and SH 146 at La Porte. The 15.78 mile long state highway originates within the Houston street grid at Lanwdale and Bowie Streets and ends just south of the Fred Hartman Bridge taking SH 146 across the Houston Ship Channel. A heavily traveled truck route, SH 255 runs by a number of refineries, chemical plants and tank farms.

The initial plans for a freeway along SH 225 envisioned a high speed route joining the industrial areas of La Porte, Deer Park and Pasadena with Downtown Houston. Initial work was undertaken in the late 1960s east of Loop 610, where the freeway was built using the existing alignment of SH 225 along Sterling Avenue and La Porte Road. Meant to relieve overcrowding along the Gulf Freeway (IH 45/U.S. 75), plans for the route within Houston however met resistance in 1971 from East End area residents, who sign petitions and organized against the planned road. The state highway department outlined the Harrisburg Freeway along a corridor following an abandoned railroad two blocks north of Harrisburg Boulevard. The acquisition of 1,200 homes and apartments was needed to build the highway.1

The high costs to both the community and state funding during the mid-1970s budget crisis, ultimately led to the cancellation of the Harrisburg Freeway. Although the state dropped efforts for the freeway along a corridor by the late 1970s, it remained on planning maps until the mid 1990s. Ramps were also built in anticipation of the Harrisburg Freeway along the Eastex Freeway (U.S. 59) by the George R. Brown Convention Center. These were subsequently removed during a late 1990s repaving project. The abandoned railroad line planned for conversion to the SH 225 freeway was repurposed as a city bicycle trail (Harrisburg Hike and Bike Trail).1

References:

  1. "Construction Ahead - Today: La Porte Freeway - Texas 225 is shortest of freeways - East End protest kept it out of downtown." Houston Chronicle (TX), August 9, 1999.

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Page Updated Monday July 29, 2019.