Still working out some issues with the community.
A decision on the preferred path for Houston’s longest bus rapid transit line will wait a couple weeks longer following community outcry regarding a planned railroad overpass.
Metropolitan Transit Authority’s board of directors delayed approval of a preferred route for the University Corridor BRT project, the longest bus rapid transit project planned in the region as part of the agency’s long-range plan.
An approval of the preferred line will come “in the next week or two weeks,” Metro Chairman Sanjay Ramabhadran said, as the agency tries to line up federal funding and approvals.
“There is a lot of ways to go before we start building things,” Ramabhadran said.
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Approval of the preferred route is significant because it is the specific location Metro will plan to build, and any adjustments would deviate from that plan if issues arise.
Though the project stretches 25 miles, it is a dozen or so blocks in the East End that are dividing Metro and residents in the area of the proposed overpass.
“The neighborhood fabric is being sacrificed for this overpass,” Laura Vargas told a Metro committee on Tuesday.
Transit officials said approving the route will not keep them from working to make the project more appealing to riders and residents alike
“It is certainly not the end of the process,” said Yuhayna Mahmud, project manager for the University Corridor.
Design of the line is 30 percent complete, she said.
Eastwood residents, however, have seen enough to organize their concerns over a planned overpass on Lockwood from Rusk to Sherman, spanning Harrisburg Boulevard, the parallel Union Pacific Railroad tracks and the Green Line light rail. Dozens have shown up at various Metro public meetings over the past month to discuss the project, including a meeting specifically to discuss the overpass Tuesday night. The concern for many is that the overpass would undermine the community by separating the buses from traffic while physically dividing the neighborhood.
“It should be for the people and not over the people,” overpass critic Tina Brady told Metro officials Tuesday.
The delay was welcomed by elected officials, who said it allows for transit planners and neighborhood groups to talk more and, perhaps, settle on a plan palatable to all.
“I believe Metro does owe it to the residents of the East End to build consensus,” Precinct Two Commissioner Adrian Garcia said.
Citing the ongoing debate over the impacts of the Interstate 45 rebuild, Garcia said Metro also must consider what its design will do to communities.
“Overpasses tend to be divisive and tend to divide communities even further,” Garcia said.
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Facing freight train delays, pocked streets and the potential for a dividing overpass, what the community wants are proposals that can address many of the issues in an agreeable way, even if that means leveraging funds from Metro and others, such as Houston to rebuild streets or federal funds aimed at removing at-grade train crossings.
“We have to think beyond just this project,” said Veronica Chapa Gorczynski, president of the East End Management District. “We are a community, and our infrastructure is as integrated as our community is, and we can do better.”
If that comes with some hard-to-swallow changes, some residents said they will feel more part of the process, even if that means an overpass.
“If we can come to the same conclusion that this is the best thing for the community, then we can live with that,” said resident Reese Campbell.
See here for the previous update. The story references the Harrisburg overpass controversy from almost a decade ago, in which Metro ultimately went against the prevailing preference of an underpass, which they originally said they’d build and then backed away from when they decided it would be far more expensive than they first thought. It sounds like people remember that but are still willing to engage, which is a good sign. I hope Metro is as transparent as possible here and that the residents feel as though their concerns have been heard and reasonably addressed.
