Via Houstonist, TxDOT’s plan to build an elevated service road between Washington and TC Jester, which was not popular with residents there, has been scrapped.
On Thursday, Mayor Bill White told residents of the Cottage Grove Civic Club that he received a fax from TxDOT Houston District Engineer Gary Trietsch stating that the department was removing the elevated lanes from its I-10 frontage lanes project.
“After analysis of our design, possible benefits and costs associated with these structures, we have concluded that we will remove these grade separations from the proposed work on the I-10 frontage roads,” Trietsch wrote in the letter, dated Aug. 3.
White said that he spoke to Trietsch earlier in the day to express his reservations about the project. The agency had proposed the 30-foot-high, two-lane frontage roads as part of a project aimed at preventing flooding like that along I-10 during Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.
Residents of Cottage Grove, Woodcrest and other West End neighborhoods, however, said the $40 million project would lead to noise and air pollution in their communities. They also said the project is unnecessary for flood mitigation, as TxDOT is also planning to construct ponds along White Oak Bayou that will protect the interstate.
“What I stated to (Trietsch) was that if you’re not going to add a lot of functionality with the elevated lanes, and you’re looking at major opposition from taxpayers who live near there, then you really have to look at the cost-effectiveness of it,” White said.
It does seem to me that the flood mitigation ponds ought to be sufficient here. For sure, they ought to be cheaper. If they prove to be inadequate for the task, this issue can be revisited. Subject to further review later on, I think this was the right call.