The plan to expand Interstate 45 hit a pair of roadblocks last week, when Harris County sued the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) asked the state agency to pause the project while it investigates environmental and civil rights concerns.
In a March 8 letter to TxDOT executive director James Bass, the FHWA said it was reviewing concerns raised under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related environmental justice concerns regarding TxDOT s proposed North Houston Highway Improvement Project, which is expected to cost more than $7 billion and displace more than 1,000 residents and businesses near and north of downtown.
In the 1960s, as the Interstate highways made their way through the middle of our cities, a growing number of city-dwellers rose up in protest to fight their construction. The urbanites lost many of the fights in the “freeway revolt,” but they did win several big ones, and their effort forced the rethinking of the worth of urban freeways that continues to this day.
The fight also continues, but on different terrain. This time, it’s freeway widening projects that are drawing the ire of urban advocacy groups. In both Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, civic activists are pushing back against plans to widen freeways, and not just in the big cities. Meanwhile, in Texas, the Harris County government is suing to stop the widening and relocation of I-45 through the city.
The Texas Department of Transportation has been moving forward with its $7 billion plan to remake and expand Interstate 45 to lessen local traffic, but Harris County threw a wrench in that effort on Thursday by suing the state transportation agency.
The county hopes its lawsuit will lead the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to order TxDOT to pause the project and send it back to the drawing board to come up with a new plan that better addresses the concerns of county residents about pollution and all the homes and business that’ll be paved over if the expansion continues as currently designed.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and other county leaders are slated to speak Thursday afternoon about a lawsuit filed against TxDOT regarding the I-45 expansion.
“Members of our community died in this disaster, and millions of Texans languished without power and water while suffering billions in property damage,” Menefee said in a statement. “Harris County residents deserve to know what happened, who made which decisions, and whether this could have been avoided or mitigated.”
Menefee’s investigation will look to “identify all responsible parties” for the state’s power crisis, with a particular focus on the Public Utility Commission (which oversees ERCOT), ERCOT itself and Texas’ independent power generators. He cited warnings from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the Texas power grid “was underprepared for hard freeze events” after a smaller wave of winter blackouts back in 2011,