Garden Bridges: Twenty-four street bridges throughout the downtown segment, with high-comfort passageways for pedestrians and cyclists, that would connect downtown to the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Wards.Green Loop: A 5-mile trail circuit around downtown, touching on multiple neighboring communities, partly where the Pierce Elevated is now located.Pierce Skypark Corridor: A transformation of the Pierce Elevated on the west and south edges of downtown into an expansive park with multimodal transportation amenities as well as the possibility for residential and commercial development.EaDo Cap Park: An elevated park above a depression in the freeway east of downtown. Here is a rundown of what Central Houston is proposing, with an estimated overall cost of more than $737 million: Work on the proposed amenities would not necessarily be completed by TxDOT, Douglas said, but by other governmental entities and stakeholders, including Central Houston, which estimates it will have between $200-$250 million in incremental tax revenue to contribute to the effort. "We put these civic opportunities in front of them to show them what we've been doing for the last decade on behalf of the community, with the community and with the help of TxDOT."ĭouglas said Central Houston has long provided input to TxDOT regarding its North Houston Highway Improvement Project, and that TxDOT has agreed to redesign and restructure I-45 in ways that will be conducive to Central Houston's ideas. "They're looking at the notion of or the question of whether the highway (project) unfairly impacts Black and brown communities," Douglas said of the FHWA. He said the ideas as well as a cost estimate for executing them were presented earlier this year to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), in response to its ongoing investigation and as testimony for why Central Houston supports the I-45 project. The proposed amenities, first reported Tuesday by Axios Houston, have been in the works since 2012, according to Allen Douglas, general counsel and chief operating officer for Central Houston. Central Houston's $737 million vision – which includes elevated parks, a 5-mile trail around downtown, stormwater detention basins and several bridges that connect downtown to nearby neighborhoods – might also ease some of the concerns being evaluated by the federal government and push the project forward. The project is largely paused while the Federal Highway Administration investigates civil rights and environmental concerns that have been raised, which also prompted Harris County to sue the state agency last year and ask a federal judge to require TxDOT to give greater consideration to input from the community.Ī series of related amenities proposed by Central Houston, an economic development organization representing the interests of the downtown area, is being billed as a way to address some criticism of the project. The multi-billion-dollar plan by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to widen and reroute the freeway between downtown Houston and Beltway 8 to the north has drawn vocal opposition from impacted residents, regional stakeholders and local elected officials. Also included in the graphic is a breakout of related amenities proposed by Central Houston.Ī downtown economic development group hopes proposed “green” and multimodal amenities will make the controversial I-45 expansion plan more palatable for the project’s critics. Central Houston Highlighted in green is Central Houston’s proposed “Green Loop,” a 5-mile, multimodal circuit around Downtown Houston that would coincide with the Interstate 45 expansion project.
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