Transportation

Galleria
12/11/09 12:03pm

The Lights of Post Oak: Two Dozen Stops Along the Uptown Line

by
Proposed Developments, Traffic, Transportation
25 Comments

Once the new Metro Uptown light-rail line is built, Post Oak Blvd. could feature more than 23 stoplights along its 1.7-mile stretch between Richmond Ave. and the 610 Loop, reports the River Oaks Examiner‘s Mike Reed. A report prepared last October by the group of companies contracted to build the new Uptown Line lists 21 stoplights and 7 stations.

But that information’s got to be out of date, right?

. . . in response to questions, a Metropolitan Transit Authority spokeswoman said Tuesday that since the report was written, the number of potential signals has increased to 23, with an additional traffic light and an additional pedestrian light under consideration.

While the proposals contained in such reports are subject to change, the original document indicates the scope of the project combined with the density and development in the area would make substantial alterations to the plan difficult at best.

Reed also reports a few details on the rebuilding of Post Oak:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , , , , , , ,
Financing
12/10/09 9:20am

John Culberson to Metro: Stop This Train!

by
Quicklink, Transportation
44 Comments

JOHN CULBERSON TO METRO: STOP THIS TRAIN! After poring through financial documents on the Metro website that the organization’s chairman now says are outdated, Congressman John Culberson announces his opposition to federal funding for the light-rail University Line — because he’s concluded that Metro won’t be able to afford it: “Culberson filed a formal objection with the Federal Transit Authority late Tuesday, ahead of a deadline today for members of Congress to file any concerns. Otherwise the FTA would have given Metro the nod to begin preliminary engineering work on the line. Part of the 10-mile route lies within Culberson’s congressional district. FTA spokesman Paul Griffo said the agency retains the final say. ‘It is not a process that requires explicit congressional approval or disapproval,’ Griffo said. ‘The FTA will keep Mr. Culberson’s concerns in mind, as we do the concerns of all elected officials, as projects advance through our evaluation process.’” [Houston Chronicle; more detail in the River Oaks Examiner]

, , , , ,
Public Art
12/01/09 11:44am

Riding the Rail to Nowhere, for a Limited Time Only

by
Sunset Terrace, Transportation
3 Comments

And where was this? From the description:

take two rails from a gas station, weld them together, dress up as a city worker, install on public land, skate for a few weeks, cry when city takes rail away

Update: Found! Bernard, in a comment, says it’s at the northwest corner of Edloe and Westpark.

Video: Jake Hayes

, ,
Development Strategies
11/18/09 2:18pm

History in the Making

by
Downtown, Historic Preservation, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Real Estate Investing, Transportation
6 Comments

HISTORY IN THE MAKING A whole lotta railroad action next to the site of the planned Crawford Stations on the East End line, between Minute Maid Park and Discovery Green — but will this train be rolling?: “If a series of deals go through, the city would be able to create a ‘super block’ previously eyed for a new hotel, redevelop Avenida De Las Americas and move two historic houses and a railroad engine to create a small historic area on the eastern side of downtown. The train would complement the homes and proposed heritage center — which would be paid for with privately raised funds — and underscore the importance of locomotives in Houston’s history in facilities across the street from the former Union Station. . . . But the plans also call for an unusual process to sell land to a wealthy, well-connected real estate investor and former council member, and force the city to move the historic homes.. . . Several City Council members raised questions about the initial step in the process, which the council will consider today, to appoint an independent appraiser to name a price for the land on Avenida De Las Americas, between Capitol and Rusk. If the city sees the price as favorable and decides to sell, it would then be up to Louis Macey, who owns a far larger piece of land that abuts the area, to buy. . . . Andy Icken, deputy director of the city’s Department of Public Works and Engineering, said the city needs to relocate the homes before the Metropolitan Transit Authority begins building light rail lines along Capitol and Rusk. . . . The city has chosen to sell the houses through a process normally used with abandonments because it is likely to get more money that way, he said. By itself the land’s potential may be limited, but if an appraiser can consider its value in the context of other downtown land — which is possible in this case because Macey is the adjacent landowner — it is almost certain to fetch a higher price, he said.” [Houston Chronicle]

, , , , , , , ,
Eastwood
11/17/09 4:14pm

What About Bob?

by
Quicklink, Streets, Transportation
2 Comments

WHAT ABOUT BOB? Dana Jennings reports from Eastwood, 2 blocks west of Lockwood, “where the light rail project is in high jackhammer mode.”: “Bob Street would be a good place to live. It’s short, like the name. Starts at Harrisburg and dead-ends into Garrow Street near the meandering, tree-lined Harrisburg hike and bike trail. Bob St. is just two short blocks lined with single story bungalows and front porches. Most need love and repair. . . . Talked to a young man, drinking coffee on his front steps, enjoying the morning mist. He was making sure I wasn’t up to no good. . . . Quiet little street with its own version of neighborhood watch, and with artists in the night, spraypainting dragons at the corner. Curiously, all homes face the street at a slight 15? degree angle. Lining up the porches to salute the rising sun? Wonder what the trendmaker builder of the time was thinking, back in 1910?” [The Next San Miguel de Allende]

, , , , ,
Comments
11/11/09 10:45pm

Comment of the Day: Bring Your Mud Boots

by
Public Safety, Quicklink, Transportation
4 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: BRING YOUR MUD BOOTS “There are too many high-speed arterials, especially outside the Loop, with no sidewalks. I was taking the bus to work for about a month earlier this year (I work in an office on the North beltway). There are bus stops there but no sidewalks. Speeds on the feeder road tend to be 45 to 50 mph. There are few pedestrians (for obvious reasons) but there are some; bus commuters like me, kids walking to school every day, etc. They will walk on muddy paths to avoid walking in the street. And bus riders with wheelchairs or strollers are simply SOL. I liked riding the bus, but not the sidewalk-free walk at the end of the ride.” [RWB, commenting on Where the Sidewalks End]

, , , ,
Airline
11/10/09 1:36pm

Where the Sidewalks End

by
Public Safety, Quicklink, Transportation
21 Comments

WHERE THE SIDEWALKS END “On Airline Drive, for example, up to 40,000 people arrive every weekend to visit flea markets that line both sides of the road. The neighborhood’s management district is gearing up to spend $2.9 million on pedestrian improvements, including two new, signalized crosswalks on Airline, as well as sidewalks on nearby streets that are heavily used by local residents. . . . [Harris County] has a policy of not installing sidewalks when it builds a new road, unless a group or city provides the extra money. ‘It’s an expense that doesn’t have to do with transportation,’ said Mark Seegers, a spokesman for Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia. ‘The county does not do sidewalks; it’s not what gets cars from point A to point B.’ . . . In the eight-county region that includes Houston, an average of 100 pedestrians died every year between 2003 and 2008, and an average of 1,175 were injured, mostly within Harris County, according to statistics compiled by the Texas Department of Transportation. More than half of all pedestrian deaths occur on [high-capacity, high-speed roads called ‘arterials’], often as people are trying to cross to reach retail shops or bus stops.” [Houston Chronicle]

, , , , , , ,
Galleria
11/04/09 2:54pm

Mixed Use for the New Uptown Corridor: A Better Perennial Portrait

by
Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Transportation
14 Comments

Here they are: More renderings of the Perennial, the mixed-use development the Redstone Companies is hoping to fit onto a block at 2200 Post Oak Blvd. just north of the Galleria — on the former site of the Compass Bank building, which was imploded in a small ceremony earlier this year. Does this thing look familiar? An earlier drawing of the project appeared on the SkyscraperPage forum and was featured on Swamplot in May. Now HAIF poster Urbannizer digs up a leasing brochure for the property from the development’s otherwise password-protected website.

What’s for lease? Two separate buildings: a 20-story office tower incorporating an 8-level parking garage as well as lots of retail space at the base; and a separate hotel tower to the north — combining just under 300 guest rooms and 100 residences. In all, the developers are counting just under 74,000 sq. ft. of retail space, including 3 levels meant to face the action on Post Oak.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , , , , ,
Freeways and Toll Roads
10/26/09 3:16pm

Paying Tolls on I-45, 290, and 59

by
Quicklink, Transportation
10 Comments

PAYING TOLLS ON I-45, 290, AND 59 “At its October meeting, the Metro board gave the go-ahead for the future conversion of highway HOV lanes to so-called “HOT” lanes (high-occupancy toll) like the ones operating on the Katy Freeway. A HOT lane has electronic scanning equipment that allows a solo driver to pay a toll to use a segregated carpool lane during rush hours. . . . The conversion of HOV lanes will occur on five freeway segments in the Metro service area: I-45 North and South, U.S. 290, and U.S. 59 north and south. Board documents indicate the cost of installing toll readers and automated gates would be about $48 million. Operating and maintaining the system for five years would cost an additional $42 million. Four-fifths of the total will come from federal grants. Metro will release more information when the final contract is signed, [Metro spokeswoman Raequel] Roberts said. But she said the HOV conversions could be completed in about two years.” [Houston Chronicle, via BlogHouston]

, , ,
Bridgeland
10/09/09 3:05pm

Little Grand Parkway on the Prairie Not So Shovel-Ready After All

by
Freeways and Toll Roads, Katy Prairie, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Transportation
8 Comments

LITTLE GRAND PARKWAY ON THE PRAIRIE NOT SO SHOVEL-READY AFTER ALL Those pesky federal regulators, ruining all the fun: It’s now looking like the 15-mile-long Upper Katy Prairie paving project known as the Grand Parkway Segment E won’t be getting the bucket of cash Harris County Commissioners Court wanted. County officials will instead request that the $181 million in federal stimulus funds earlier allocated to the way-out-northwest loop road be distributed to other projects: “The recommendation to withdraw the project from the Texas Department of Transportation’s list of stimulus projects was made by Art Storey, who heads Harris County’s Public Infrastructure Department. Storey declined to comment on his recommendation until it is considered at Harris County Commissioner Court’s meeting next Tuesday. ‘Staff and consultants have worked diligently and successfully to be on schedule to meet the deadlines to enable Segment E construction to qualify for and receive the stimulus funding, but the federal permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cannot be completely processed by the required mid-February date,’ Storey said in a letter to the court. ‘In fact, because of conflicts over environmental impacts and mitigation, that permit might never be issued.’” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]

, , , , , , , , ,
Nightlife
09/22/09 4:29pm

Metro Just Means Afterparties Are Out of the Question

by
Quicklink, Transportation
9 Comments

METRO JUST MEANS AFTERPARTIES ARE OUT OF THE QUESTION On the way to asking a larger political question, a personal testament to the moderating influence of going car-free: “See, in the past month I’ve had absolutely no problems getting to where I want to go. I can grab groceries, visit friends. The other day I took my primary romantic interest to dinner and a movie. We hopped a few buses to the Marq*E, headed back across town on a 20-Long Point to Ninfa’s/Navigation, then grabbed two buses back to her place. Thing is, it was a 3:30pm movie. You can get anywhere on the bus, but you have to do it *early*, because if you stay out too late the buses stop running. Transit doesn’t alter your mobility, it alters your lifestyle. I can hop a 40-Telephone and grab some extra-large CFS at the Dot Coffee Shop. But I can’t do it at 3am. I can catch a 25-Richmond to the drum and bass night. But to get home will require an expensive cab ride, unless I jet the party when other people are still showing up. Basically, transit has an incredible power to make you square.” [Keep Houston Houston]

, , , ,
Brookesmith
09/04/09 12:26pm

Secret Powers of the Cordell St. Shipping-Container House

by
Construction Materials, Green Design and Development, Home Design, Homebuilders, New Construction: Residential, Quicklink, Transportation
1 Comment

SECRET POWERS OF THE CORDELL ST. SHIPPING-CONTAINER HOUSE The Brookesmith home of Kevin Freeman and Jen Feldmann — fashioned from shipping containers by Numen Development’s John Walker and Katie Nichols — meets a national audience in the pages of the latest issue of Dwell: “The meat distributor [across Cordell St.] begins loading trucks as early as 5:30 a.m., but the couple imagines themselves as hipsters living in New York City’s meatpacking district, and that makes it okay. . . . The corrugated steel of the container that houses the master suite becomes a textured wall for writing messages in the home’s entrance. ‘When we were furnishing the house, I thought, “Oh no! Our fridge isn’t magnetic for Eli’s artwork,” but then I realized the whole house is magnetic,’ Feldmann says. ‘We’ve become magnet connoisseurs,’ Freeman adds.” [Dwell; previously in Swamplot]

, , , , , , , , , ,
Demolitions
09/02/09 6:14pm

The Secret Train Station Hidden Downtown

by
Downtown, Quicklink, Transportation
14 Comments

THE SECRET TRAIN STATION HIDDEN DOWNTOWN “See, everyone in Houston thinks that our old train station was over by Enron Field (this blog does not recognize Minute Maid’s sponsorship deal) and that it’s been preserved as part of the ballpark. But actually, we had TWO stations – the Southern Pacific had their own, seperate from the Astros station, a mission/art deco fusion with beautiful murals on the walls and great big arched windows. Pictures of the place . . . are few and far between, but the ones I’ve seen show something that rivals LA Union Terminal or [Philadelphia’s 30th St. Station.] That station was torn down to make way for the Barbara Jordan [Post Office], except that ONLY THE WAITING ROOM WAS TORN DOWN. The whole mess of platforms and switchtracks that goes along with an art deco station building is still there, behind the post office, rusted and overgrown but still in existence as a huge chunk of UP-owned real estate.” [Keep Houston Houston]

, , , ,
« Previous Page Next Page »