This story is primarily about the effect of the proposed I-10 widening/elevating would have on the Cottage Grove neighborhood, which was previously split in two by the highway’s construction in 1968. That’s all worth reading, but I’m focusing on a smaller part of the story.
Almost six decades later, the Texas Department of Transportation has plans once again for I-10. This time, the project would be to expand the freeway from Voss Road to Interstate 45. The project would extend existing managed lanes into downtown while adding drainage improvements under the freeway. That takes the form of two options: widen the freeway or elevate the managed lanes.
Neither, according to residents, is a good option.
Instead, a grass-roots movement called “No Higher, No Wider” has proposed an alternative that would widen the freeway at its current grade and create managed lanes in the existing right-of-way of I-10.
The main feature of the community-driven design is a structural cap, a cover that would go over the existing below-grade sections of the freeway on which development could occur. The idea is to link the two sides of Cottage Grove for the first time in nearly 60 years with pedestrian infrastructure.
While most of Cottage Grove lies north of I-10, few know the neighborhood extends south of the highway. In fact, few residents of that area even know they are in Cottage Grove.
[…]
According to Grady Mapes, director of TxDOT’s District Comprehensive Development Agreements program, public comments generally deal with one specific issue or technical part of the project.
Technical suggestions are easy to evaluate, as TxDOT operates under a set of standards it can weigh against outside ideas and proposals. Those standards deal with such things as stopping sight distances and other technical evaluations of the road.
“We don’t often have comments in a large group that come in that just say we just don’t like the project,” Mapes said.
A Houston Landing review of public feedback from more than 250 residents showed the vast majority of comments were in opposition to the I-10 project.
“It’s an evaluation of the purpose and need at that point is really what it becomes,” Mapes said.
For the I-10 Inner Katy Managed Lanes project, the purpose for the project is to reduce congestion, improve mobility, and enhance drainage on I-10. Many commenters say widening the freeway likely would not do much to alleviate congestion.
Instead, the project would bring more noise and air pollution, while also cutting into the neighborhood’s park. It also may displace more than 80 homes and businesses. Residents called out the potential for damaging neighborhood property values and overall quality of life as lasting impacts without seeing real benefits from the project.
“Going back to 2021, we presented alternatives to TxDOT,” [Drew Wiley, infrastructure committee chair for the Cottage Grove Civic Association] said. “We were like, ‘Look, this is too much. You guys, you’re just using your old playbook, you’re just widening. You’re adding more lanes, like this isn’t what this area needs.’”
Other commenters wanted to see an emphasis on green spaces and pedestrian mobility. The overall resistance to the same freeway solutions led to the formation of “No Higher, No Wider I-10” and pushes from neighborhoods like Cottage Grove and the West End.
The structural cap solution is not sure to alleviate the concerns of residents, according to Mapes.
“Sometimes they have outcomes that people maybe didn’t think of when they presented the concept,” Mapes said, suggesting that some ideas could require additional right-of-way on the freeway.
See here for the previous entry, in which I first encountered No Higher No Wider I-10. I mean, I’m glad that TxDOT is taking steps to accommodate the construction of the Inner Katy Line, even as we have no reason to trust anything Metro says right now. I would just like for them, this one time, to really care about the people and the neighborhoods that will be disrupted by what they’re doing. I can’t say I have much faith that they will, but I applaud the No Higher No Wider folks for trying.