Houston Strategies

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Texas Legislature

The regular session ended on Memorial Day. Transportation-related issues were mostly low priority, and the Senate focused mainly on a few important long-term funding bills.

Houston-specific issues (no bills passed):

Bills approved (statewide):

Three bills provide long-term funding for TxDOT into the early 2040s. This is especially important since recent inflation has extended project timelines, with NHHIP now scheduled for completion in 2042.

Inner Katy Managed Lanes

In May I provided an update on the status of the Metro's Inner Katy (Loop 610 to downtown) BRT. A TxDOT presentation on May 18 says that construction on the separate managed lanes could begin in 2026 or 2027 (page 19). This is good news! However, there is much work still to be done, including environmental clearance, so 2026-2027 seems optimistic. There is not yet a recommended design option, but all the documents suggest that an elevated structure in the center of the freeway is the leading candidate. Future public meetings will influence the recommended design. The scope of the project includes reconstructing the main lanes and increasing the minimum vertical clearance to 18.5 feet. (It is currently around 15'4"). This will be an expensive project.

Big Projects in Dallas and Austin move ahead of NHHIP

While NHHIP has been engulfed in controversy, the $1 billion I-345 project in Dallas and the $5 billion I-35 project in Austin are moving forward and are now scheduled to be completed much sooner than NHHIP, even though planning for both the Dallas and Austin projects started much later than NHHIP. Dallas City Council recently unanimously approved TxDOT's plans to sink the elevated I-345 freeway into a trench. The DEIS for I-35 in Austin was released in February and TxDOT is moving toward construction as fast as possible. While there has been plenty of controversy for both the Dallas and Austin projects, local officials did not file lawsuits or request federal reviews.

*Schedule tentative and subject to change.

So if I-35 and I-345 continue to progress as expected, they will be completed in 2032 or 2033. Only three small sections of NHHIP are scheduled to be complete at that time (including I-69 south of I-45, and the I-10/I-45 interchange). The vast majority of work including downtown work and all of I-45 north of downtown would be just getting started or not even started.

Austin's New Plan for Light Rail

In April 2022 Austin's original light rail plan including a subway was estimated to cost $10.3 billion, with the tunnels costing around $1 billion per mile. Those estimates were before recent severe inflation in construction costs.

Austin's revised plan (map with data) is now entirely at street level, running in the middle of streets just like Houston's MetroRail. Depictions of the new plan look very familiar to Houstonians. Costs, however, remain outrageously expensive.

Depiction of Austin's plan. This design looks familiar to Houston's.

Houston's $1.41 billion Green and Purple lines have very low ridership, easily handled by bus rapid transit (BRT). If the lines had been built as BRT, they could have easily reached Hobby Airport with the $1.4 billion budget, likely with plenty of money left over. The Silver line BRT cost $46 million per mile and the University line is expected to cost $63 million per mile.

If Austin uses BRT instead of light rail, the cost per mile would be drastically reduced. They could build the unfunded extensions shown in the map, and provide service to the airport with no transfer. They could also potentially use the savings to build a tunnel under Lake Lady Bird instead of an undesirable new bridge. Once again, fixation on light rail causes money to be wasted and transit service to be limited.