TTC funds 610/290/I-10 interchange fixes

Small beginning to large plan

Jay Blazek Crossley, Nov 23, 09.

The Texas Transportation Commission for the first time has exercised a new power granted in the 2007 legislative session and issued general obligation bonds to fund a variety of road projects including $310 million to begin fixing the interchange at the intersection of Loop 610, I-10, and 290, according to the Houston Chronicle,. The interchange is listed as the 13th most congested segment of roadway in Texas according to a recent Texas Department of Transportation report, which claims that problems with the intersection cost the public $46.88 million annually, or 2,258,133 hours of delay.

It is unclear whether this initial focus on the bottleneck is a sign of a change of TXDOT policy or just a logical first step in the 290 plan. Transportation activists, such as Christof Spieler, have long called for a focus on such bottlenecks as a priority over over adding lanes to the road network:

TxDOT’s strategy for 40 years has been to keep adding lanes. Their future plans are more of the same — more lanes on I-45, more lanes on 290, more lanes on 288. But the biggest traffic problems now are bottlenecks — the Pierce Elevated, 610 and 59, 610 and 290, 59 at Main Street, 288/59 at I-45. Adding more lanes to put more traffic into those bottlenecks will only make traffic worse. So the focus should be on the bottlenecks. But any major construction in an urban area has to be designed to improve surrounding neighborhoods, not harm them. And solutions have to include more effective use of existing right of way through more intelligent lane configurations, better connections to surface streets, and electronic traffic management.

TXDOT’s My290 website covers the entire $5 billion plan to fix 290.
TXDOT Press Release
Christof Speiler’s CTC Houston - Intermodality blog post on the 290 plan