I have to say, I think TxDOT did a pretty good job with the design of the West Loop. The new interchanges are a vast improvement, in terms of traffic flow and (I’d venture to guess) safety. There’s still a few quibbles – for example, the exit to Westheimer southbound is so close to the intersection that gettting over to the right lane is a major pain. But I wouldn’t trade what we have now for what we had before. It’s not even close.
Which is not to say that what we have now couldn’t have been better. Some fair criticisms are raised in this article, in particular:
Bill Ware and Carol Caul, who live about 750 feet from the Loop near its Katy Freeway interchange, have sued TxDOT, contending the agency should have performed an environmental impact study and taken steps to mitigate the additional noise from increased, faster traffic.
Not only does traffic noise arrive in the neighborhood directly, it also is reflected downward off the bottom of the long Woodway-Memorial ramp,” Ware said.
“It is definitely far louder now,” said Caul.
She also said that noise levels across the Loop in Memorial Park and the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center are unlawfully high for such protected spaces.
That suit was filed in January. TxDOT really should have taken the noise factor into account and used better sound-absorbing technology in the ramps. I hope they agree to settle on this and solve the problem rather than dig their heels in and draw out the fight.
The bottom line, of course, is that however improved 610 is, that stretch of road is still going to be a parking lot for much of the day, and Christof is quite right to say it’s just going to get worse as the I-10 and eventual US-290 widenings complete. Given that the other choices were doubledecking or cutting into Memorial Park, I can live with that. Sometimes the “cure” is worse than the poison. At least you can get on and off more efficiently now. Thanks to Houstonist for the link.