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The Texas Department of Transportation appears ready to forge ahead with its controversial $9.7 billion Interstate 45 expansion project, starting with a set of six federally-mandated public meetings.
The meetings will kick off at St. John’s Downtown Church on Wednesday, where Houstonians can expect to hear when construction is scheduled to begin on the massive rebuild stretching from downtown to Beltway 8.
The project will reroute the freeway around downtown Houston, reorder connections with other major highways and displace more than 1,400 homes, apartments and businesses along the route.
In response to a question from the Abdelraoufsinno about how community feedback had been incorporated into the rebuild, TxDOT spokesman Danny Perez said, “The entire project is a response to community feedback over the lifecycle of the project.”
Local organizers who oppose the project or want to see it modified complained about the timing of the meetings, saying that holding them as the region enters the holidays is a sign that plans for the I-45 expansion, known as the North Houston Highway Improvement Project or NHHIP, will not adequately address their concerns.
“I know they say it’s not deliberate, but we don’t believe that,” said Susan Graham, founder of Stop TxDOT I-45. Organizers also say the meeting locations and TxDOT’s decision to hold half of the meetings online would present accessibility issues for residents directly impacted by the project.
“The residents have two very big problems, and that’s transportation and Internet access,” said Kendra London, a recent District B city council candidate and Fifth Ward native.
“Who’s going to show up downtown?” London said. “None of the elders will show up. None of the people who have to make a decision of where they’re going to live will show up.”
Natalia Moreno, a communications staffer for STOP TxDOT I-45, said language could also be a barrier, especially for residents in Segment 1 of the project on I-45.
Segment 1 runs between Loop 610 and Beltway 8 and runs through Independence Heights, Northside, Greater Greenspoint and Aldine where many impacted residents speak primarily Spanish, according to Moreno. She said previous meetings had been in English, and interpretation was available only by request.
Above all, organizers said they were interested to see what, if any, changes TxDOT had made to reduce the footprint of the proposed expansion project.
“I’m hoping that they will have made some effort here in Near Northside or Segment 2 to have kept the freeway skinnier,” Graham said.
The meetings are a result of a Voluntary Resolution Agreement, or VRA, signed by TxDOT and the Federal Highway Administration last March. The VRA resolved a federal investigation into the project after local organizations, including Stop TxDOT I-45, LINK Houston, and Air Alliance Houston, raised concerns about potential violations of the Civil Rights Act.
Federal officials ordered the state to pause the project in 2021, around the same time Harris County filed a lawsuit claiming TxDOT ignored the county’s wishes to keep the rebuild within the highway's current footprint.
In 2022, TxDOT signed memorandums of understanding with Harris County and Houston, allowing the project to move forward once the VRA was signed.
The I-45 NHHIP “Changes for The Better” public meeting series signal that TxDOT is ready to resume the project. The meetings satisfy a VRA requirement and are “specifically for the purpose of providing information on portions of (the) project that are beginning construction,” Perez said.
Each of the three segments will be the focus of two meetings – one in-person gathering and one held virtually. All of the meetings are scheduled from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., with a presentation set for 5:15 p.m.
The in-person meetings will provide opportunities for public feedback as part of an “open house” format to the meeting, according to Perez.
“If people don’t show up to these meetings, it’s a problem because TxDOT’s going to see that people just don’t really care anymore,” Graham said.
The meeting schedule is as follows:
Segment 3 (Downtown Loop)
Wednesday
St. John’s Downtown Church
2019 Crawford Street
Thursday
Virtual: Register here
Segment 3 contains the entirety of the downtown highway loop, and will impact U.S. 59/Interstate 69 on the north and south ends of downtown in Fifth Ward, Third Ward, and Midtown. Interstate 10 also will see some work along the White Oak Bayou to the west and into Fifth Ward and East Downtown.
The Segment 3 meetings were singled out by TxDOT as having a specific design change as part of the project update. The design changes concern Segment 3B, which runs along U.S. 59/I-69 between I-45 and State Highway 288.
London said she was concerned about displaced residents from the construction on the highway, pointing out that residents already have moved from the Clayton Homes public housing complex.
“They should never have displaced those residents without giving them navigators, without giving them the entire package of resources that are needed to relocate someone,” London said. She said the entire project should be paused until those homes and resources for displaced residents are more readily available.
Segment 2 (I-10 to Loop 610)
Dec. 11
Moody Community Center
3725 Fulton Street
Dec. 12
Virtual: Register here
Segment 2 passes through Woodland Heights, Northside Village and into Independence Heights. A bulk of the work will be widening the highway to accommodate four lanes. There also will be work on both sides of I-45 along Loop 610.
“My hope would be that they found a way to keep more connectivity between (Near Northside) and the Heights, and also (Near Northside) and the East End,” Graham said.
Other planning elements she is looking for include making feeder roads look more like city streets, slowing down traffic, and building out pedestrian infrastructure under the freeway.
Segment 1 (Loop 610 to the Sam Houston Tollway)
Dec. 13
Virtual: Register here
Dec. 14
Aldine Ninth Grade Center
10650 North Freeway
Segment 1 will widen I-45 between I-610 and the Sam Houston Tollway, with drainage improvements in the form of 11 detention ponds just north of Montgomery Road.
Moreno’s primary concern is accessibility for the Spanish-speaking population in the area around Segment 1. She said her hope is that TxDOT will have translations available at the meeting, and she wants to see proof that the agency is incorporating feedback from the communities.
“I still have yet to find out who exactly are stakeholders,” Moreno said. “We did ask, and their response was, you know, churches and (homeowner’s associations), people like that. But, you know, I still would like to know specifically who stakeholders are.”
She said she also is curious to hear how the project will handle environmental and public health impacts of construction.
“My niece has severe asthma, she grew up pretty close to the highway, even though no one else in my family has had asthma,” Moreno said. “So, it was one of those things that, you know, they did say it was an environmental thing.”
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