I-10 Widening Project Continues in Texas
The current work will expand the freeway to three lanes in each direction and shift a notorious bottleneck farther west. May 20, 2021, 10am PDT | Diana Ionescu |
Drivers who travel between Houston and Austin are familiar with exactly where traffic usually slows down. Coming from Houston, it is just past Katy, says Kristina Hernandez, a resident who makes the drive frequently. Now, reports Dug Begley for the Houston Chronicle, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is expanding Interstate 10 there as part of a generation-long goal of having three lanes in each direction along I-10 from Houston to San Antonio. The current project, which will cost close to $570 million, will shift the bottleneck that now occurs in the area near Sealy farther west. When the work is completed in mid-2022, drivers will have three lanes in each direction through Sealy, as opposed to the well-known bottleneck west of Brookshire.
Communities along the corridor have fought expansion for decades, citing air quality and displacement concerns. Now, the agency says it's time to rethink the project.
Billed as a "bridge replacement," the latest iteration of the Columbia River Crossing project is a costly expansion that will impose new tolls and cost upwards of $5 billion, according to an article by Joe Cortright.