Nearly two years to the day that federal officials halted TxDOT’s plans to rebuild Interstate 45 and Houston’s freeway system, national and state highway leaders have reached an agreement that would allow the reconstruction to continue, but with a series of concessions aimed at addressing the project’s impact on low-income – and minority districts.
The Federal Highway Administration and the Texas Department of Transportation announced Tuesday morning that they had reached an agreement, similar to the one TxDOT reached with Harris County and Houston in December, outlining various obligations related to the planned $9.7 billion reconstruction of I-45 from downtown Houston north to Beltway 8. The agreement immediately lifts the federal pause placed on the project on March 8, 2021, and resolves the audit conducted by federal officials related to TxDOT’s compliance with federal environmental regulations.
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Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, who pushed for TxDOT to communicate more with the community and take concerns about air quality and housing loss seriously, welcomed the announcement.
“We’re not where we absolutely wanted to be, but we’re not where we were,” Jackson Lee said, crediting local officials for demanding changes and TxDOT for finally offering solutions.
“We’re a lot further along than we ever could have been, and that’s the power of the federal government,” she said, noting the influence TxDOT had before federal issues came up. “The community was not listened to and I applaud the complaints that have been listened to have led us to this agreement.”
The impact of the agreement and lifting of any restrictions means the project could remain on track for significant work to begin in 2027 — six years later than TxDOT planned as late as 2020 — but also has the potential to change the current design or use more modern flood control standards along the route.
Unlike the agreements with the city and county, the agreement reached with federal officials leaves TxDOT with both oversight and enforcement of many of the details. As part of the agreement, TxDOT will:
- conduct twice-yearly public meetings during development and construction, expected to take more than a decade, to update the community on progress and plans for detours during construction.
- submit progress reports to the FHWA, which will be posted publicly on a federal website dedicated to the project.
- add an additional $3 million to the $27 million that TxDOT has already committed to help the Houston Housing Authority develop new affordable housing opportunities, reflecting the pledge TxDOT has previously made to the city.
- commit $1.5 million to create parks and trails, specifically to replace park space near the Kelly Village public housing complex.
- support the creation of the Emancipation National Historic Trail, a proposed federally sponsored historic route chronicling the journey of freed slaves from Galveston to Houston, including trail connections and planning for historical exhibits along the footprint of I-45.
- coordinate detours near two schools with the Houston Independent School District, so plans for how children will bike and walk to school are approved and how bike access will be preserved when the freeway is rebuilt.
Children cross a frontage road along Interstate 10 on Dec. 10, 2021, near Kelly Village, a Houston Housing Authority housing complex, in Houston. Children use the route to travel to and from nearby Bruce Elementary School, across the highway. Residents and advocates are concerned about proposed changes to the I-45 corridor.
Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer“The way this is structured, the U.S. Department of Transportation is not going away,” Jackson Lee said.
Other elements of the agreement commit TxDOT to elements that are less specific for now, but could eventually have far-reaching effects on the communities affected by the freeway. TxDOT has agreed to re-evaluate drainage studies for the highway reconstruction to reflect ATLAS-14, the National Precipitation Analysis released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2018 that places more of Houston in flood risk areas. TxDOT had already agreed to do this as part of the agreements with the city and county. The change could potentially mean more flood control, such as retention ponds or canals for neighborhoods near the freeway.
Meanwhile, the federal agreement builds on the county and city agreements by requiring TxDOT to try to reduce the planned footprint of the freeway, and also design and build portions of the freeway that could be limited by green space, transit or other amenities to help sew together again. communities divided by the growing freeway.
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State highway officials, especially after Houston and Harris County botched the final design, went to unprecedented lengths to address concerns while also building largely what was always intended: A wider I-45 that added two managed lanes in each direction into the center from the north, while re-draining along the roughly 12-mile route. Another eight miles of freeway that circles downtown will be rebuilt as part of the project, meaning the reconstruction will touch more than a dozen Houston neighborhoods, many divided from downtown by the freeways the project promises to expand.
Desiree Alejandro holds up a sign urging people to “Stop TXDOT” as they cross a crosswalk during a demonstration at the intersection of Polk Street and St. Emmanuel Street just east of downtown Houston on September 3, 2020. The Texas Department of Transportation plans to expand Interstate 45 between downtown and Greenspoint will close Polk Street, negatively impacting communities north of downtown, activists say.
Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff PhotographerConcerns about additional car traffic, air quality, and an even greater divide between neighborhoods caused by the larger freeway led many to push for significant changes, such as redevelopment without new additional lanes and increased investment in area transportation and trail options.
“We need to have buses and we need to get people out of their cars,” Molly Cook, an organizer with Stop TxDOT I-45, told the Texas Transportation Commission on Feb. 23.
Whatever is built, however, will take years to become an option for drivers, pedestrians or cyclists. Stretched across a dozen projects, likely starting at Interstate 69 at Spur 527 and clockwise around downtown, construction will take years, snaking north from downtown.
Based on current estimates and trends in construction costs, that could mean by the time the project reaches Greenspoint near Bush Intercontinental Airport, the current $9.7 billion price tag could be “$11 or $12 billion based on inflation,” Texas Transportation Commission chairman says , J. Bruce Bugg. told the state House Transportation Committee last week.
