prepared by Christof Spieler, cspieler@ctchouston.org, Jan 20 2005. Last updated Jan 22 2005.
Why this matters
The need to rehabilitate I-45 on the west side of downtown gives an opportunity to re-connect neighborhood and patch rips in the
urban fabric.
Downtown Houston is cut off from the neighborhoods and parks to the west by the "Spaghetti Bowl," a tangle of ramps and bridges
that carries I-44 through downtown and connects it with surface streets. Central Houston Inc.'s "Downtown Framework" envisions
replacing ramps with surface streets, moving the freeway off the bayou, and improving connections over and under the freeway. A
new bridge over Buffalo Bayou would act as a gateway to Downtown from the west. (sources: "Houston Freeways" by Erik Slotboom; Downtown Framework.)
The history
I-45 was built past the west side of Downtown in the early 1960s. The freeway was built directly through a part the Fourth Ward, once Houston's
most important African-American neighborhood. The houses and community institutions marooned on the west side of the freeway were soon demolished to make way for
skyscrapers (only Antioch Baptist Church remains, in the shadow of the Enron building); the area just to the
west of the freeway, cut off from Downtown, decayed and is now a patchword of crumbling houses, vacant lots and a few bits of
1990s redevelopment. The freeway completely destroyed the neighborhood.
Just over three years separate these views (left, April 1961; right, December 1964).The same lot is shaded yellow in both.
Note that the houses to the left of the freeway all disappear as the freeway cuts them off from their neighbors and redefines the
boundaries of downtown. Click on images to see full sized with no shading. Source: http://www.texasfreeway.com
The problems
Behind the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, an elevated section of I-45 runs almost above Buffalo Bayou. What could be a
peaceful walkway on the green banks of the bayou instead feels dank and univiting.
Unlike the other elevated freeways around downtown (59 on the east and 45 on the south) 45 around the bayou has a tangle of
ramps to surface streets. These ramps block some streets from passing under the freeway while other streets were diverted onto the ramps.
The result is that is is very hard for cars or pedestrians to find their way to the other side of the freeway.
City Hall and the city hall skyline are at the western end of a progression of parkland that extend from Memorial Park along
the Bayou through Eleanor Tinsley Park and then to Heritage Park. But that progression is interupted by the elevated freeway, which
blocks views as well as pedestrian pathways.
The plan
Central Houston, Inc. and the Downtown Management District have released a "Downtown Framework," a set of ways to improve Downtown
for the next 20 years. That document includes a proposal for rebuilding 45 on the west side of Downtown.
The ramps would be replaced with landscape feeder roads connected to the freeway by ramps north and south of the Bayou. These
feeder roads would be integrated into the street grid, distributing traffic from the freeway and allowing cars and people to cross the
freeway more easily. This owuld leave only elevated main lanes crossing the Bayou, not the "spaghetti bowl" that is there today.
The Bayou crossing itself would be a long-span bridge which would carry the freeway over the Bayou and its banks without intermediate
supports. The bridge would be a visual landmark, and serve as a gateway between the downtown parks and the greenspaces along the bayou to the west.
North of the Bayou crossing, the freeway would be moved slightly west onto land now occupied by the city courts complex. This would
free the Bayou from the shadow of the freeway and create new park space on its banks.
Memorial Drive and Washington Boulevard would cross over the freeway; between those streets the freeway could be covered to reduce
its visual impact.
The plan would also require abandoning or relocating the UP rail line just north of Washington Ave (though portions of the plan could
be carried out, and some of the benefits achieved, without touching the rail line). See CTC Fact Sheet #1.
Other plans
TXDot will need to rebuild the freeway anyway to replace aging bridges and pavement. Most likely, they will want to bring the freeway
up to current design standards, widening shoulders, replacing left exits with right exits, and eliminating tight curves. They might also
want to add lanes, especially if I-45 is widened north of Downtown. The result might be a freeway that's much like the current design,
only wider.
Independently of Central Houston, Inc., a group lead by Mark Cover of Hines is proposing to relocate I-45 north of the Bayou onto Houston
Avenue. Unlike the Central Houston plan, which would put the freeway on land now occupied by government buildings, this plan would
put the freeway through an established residential and retail area.
Gonzalo Camacho, a Houston engineer, has proposed a scheme which would place I-45 express lanes in a tunnel from Beltway 8 on the north
side of Houston to a point just past downtown Houston. A surface parkway would carry local traffic. The plan has received considerable
attention in the media and among community groups, including the I-45 Coalition.
Current status
So far, these ideas remain proposals only. No studies or official decisions have taken place.
