No bike lanes and the removing of a middle flip lane — these are the details of rivalry amongst East Houston residents involved concerning the upcoming overhaul of Phone Highway.
“Finally, the street that we’re about to design hasn’t been greatest observe for most likely 30 to 40 years,” stated Ian Hlavacek, an Eastwood resident and visitors engineer. “That is one thing that municipalities across the nation have been working to repair for many years now.”
The part of Phone Highway between Lockwood Drive and Lawndale Road, which is the primary section within the redesign undertaking, is at the moment a five-lane thoroughfare that includes a middle flip lane. Underneath the brand new design idea, it is going to lose the middle flip lane whereas it maintains the opposite 4 lanes. Except for a yellow line, there can be no separation between opposing lanes of visitors.
That is a change from a earlier design idea, which referred to as for a three-lane street with a middle flip lane. Plans for 2 proposed bicycle lanes, separated from vehicles by a buffer with bushes, have additionally been scrapped.
Neighborhood pushback on the modifications prompted a delay by the Harrisburg Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ), which controls a portion of property tax income within the space and is overseeing the undertaking, as first reported by the Houston Chronicle.
In an announcement, Harrisburg TIRZ board chair Bolivar Fraga informed Houston Public Media that the undertaking’s foremost objectives are “enhancing drainage, enhancing roadway surfaces, and enhancing general journey security and luxury — all whereas adhering to the Metropolis of Houston’s guiding mobility ideas.” The guiding mobility ideas, as enacted by Mayor John Whitmire’s administration, require street tasks to keep up the width and variety of car lanes.
“Presently, the engineers are updating the design to replicate town’s up to date design requirements whereas persevering with to stick to the undertaking objectives,” Fraga stated.
Fraga stated the TIRZ will host a public assembly “to current the proposed enhancements to the group and solicit suggestions, with an emphasis on artistic methods to enhance security and luxury, whereas working inside the metropolis’s design parameters.” The assembly is scheduled for six p.m. Aug. 19 on the KIPP Discover Academy on Lawndale Road.
Justin Doud/Houston Public Media
Based on Houston Metropolis Council member Joaquin Martinez, who represents the realm, he reached a compromise with the Whitmire administration to keep up plans for 8-foot-wide sidewalks.
“It’s one thing that’s going to ensure children are safer at this time, and I actually take into account {that a} win,” Martinez stated. “If you have a look at a number of the different tasks which can be shifting ahead as nicely — this one has actually seen alternative to see some flexibility from the administration.”
In an announcement, Whitmire’s senior planning advisor Marlene Gafrick stated the administration must “plan for town’s future mobility wants by contemplating our long run progress and densification that’s related to redevelopment.”
“The reconstruction of Phone Highway is a giant funding within the space,” Gafrick stated. “We have to take the time to design a street that can serve the residents and companies of at this time and sooner or later.”
The Phone Highway overhaul is considered one of many modified tasks below Whitmire’s administration, which scrapped plans for cyclist-friendly infrastructure and traffic-calming measures on Antoine Drive in Northwest Houston, Montrose Boulevard and West Alabama Road in Montrose. Underneath Whitmire, town has additionally torn up current infrastructure, like traffic-calming measures on Houston Avenue close to downtown and a protected bike lane in Midtown.
The $12 million Phone Highway undertaking is funded as a part of $35 million in bonds, authorised by the Houston Metropolis Council final 12 months. The updates to the design will take practically a 12 months to finish, beginning towards the top of 2025, and they’ll add practically half one million {dollars} to the associated fee. The total undertaking runs from Lawndale Drive to Loop 610.
A number of residents of the Eastwood neighborhood, which incorporates the Lawndale-Lockwood section, voiced opposition to the modifications, together with Amy Erickson.
“We’re spending cash to make the road much less protected, which is the entire reverse of what the intention of the redevelopment authority was — to make it extra protected,” Erickson stated.
In 2023 and 2024, there have been no less than seven crashes on the intersection of Lockwood and Phone Highway, together with one attainable damage, together with 18 crashes alongside the stretch between Lockwood Drive and Lawndale Road, in response to the Texas Division of Transportation’s Crash Information Info System.
