February 8, 2013 – 11:35 am

Sharing Benignus Plaza with Jason’s Deli, Texas State Optical, and a salon, this 2,500-sq.-ft. suite at 10321 Katy Freeway will be the first Club Champion store in Texas. The Chicago-based company sells custom golf clubs built to fit, and it provides a demo space for practice. Sitting just east of Town & Country Village, the Benignus Plaza store will be almost directly across I-10 from Hicks Ventures’ proposed Block 10 West Office Park.
Photos: Swamplot inbox
Read more about: 77024, I-10, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Retail, Strip Centers, Town and Country Village
February 7, 2013 – 9:30 am

If you like intensely cinematic video renderings of former housewares stores set to a really rocking soundtrack, you’re going to love this one: It’s Block 10 West Office Park! This screenshot from the video shows how developer Hicks Ventures plans to maintain fidelity to the original I-10 site near Beltway 8, retaining the parking lot that used to front the former Great Indoors, which Sears sold along with 9 other stores about a year ago.
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Read more about: I-10, Interiors, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Renovations
Those new center sorta-HOV lanes on the new Katy Freeway will go toll starting this weekend. Here’s a little primer to help you make intelligent purchase decisions at 65 mph or more: “The lanes will now be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Outside of rush hours, they’re a toll road: every car, regardless of how many people are in it, pays $1.10 to go the full length of the lanes. During rush hour, in the rush hour direction, single occupant cars pay between $2.00 and $4.00 and 2+ carpools are free. Those rates will need to be adjusted if the lanes are too popular, because HCTRA (who operates the lanes) has promised METRO (who gave up the HOV lane to make room for them) that buses will keep moving at full speed. Single occupant vehicles and carpools will be sorted out by a three-lane toll plaza: left lane for carpools, right two lanes for SOVs.” [Intermodality; details]
Read more about: Freeways and Toll Roads, I-10, Katy Freeway, Openings and Closings, Transportation
March 31, 2009 – 11:30 am

In this episode: Katy Freeway anthill mover, moon-unit coffee, and that robot on the porch.
What’s this special delivery rushing down I-10?
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Read more about: 77009, 77010, Discovery Green, Downtown, I-10, Transportation, Woodland Heights
February 6, 2009 – 12:19 pm
“Has anyone else noticed that traffic on I-10 is still not great? I have a ‘reverse’ commute on I-10 every day. Before the expansion traffic was fine inside the loop outbound in the morning, slow outside the loop. Inbound in the evening it was slow outside the loop, fine inside, except near the 10-45 interchange. Now things are much smoother outbound, no delay at all. Inbound, however, is a nightmare. Traffic comes to nearly a complete stop approaching the 10-45 interchange, and is usually very slow all the way back to Shepherd / Durham. Observing the ‘regular’ commuters across the median, things are of course worse. In the mornings the backup to get onto the loop or through the 10-45 interchange is insane, it’s bad in the evenings as well.” [NeoHouston]
Read more about: Freeways and Toll Roads, I-10, Katy Freeway, Traffic
January 21, 2009 – 2:58 pm
Those new HOV-ish lanes in the center of the new Katy Freeway will have a price tag attached to them by around May or so — but Harris County commissioners haven’t yet decided what it’ll be: “The county intends to use a flexible-rate system based on congestion, called dynamic pricing. Initially, certain rates will be set for rush-hour commutes, and different prices may be set for other periods. After about 90-days, the prices may change based on traffic observations. Signs near the entrances to the Katy Freeway lanes will announce the rates. Carpoolers and other high-occupancy vehicles will be able to access the Katy toll road for free during peak hours through designated lanes along the freeway. They will not be required to use toll tags — an electronic toll collection system that drivers display on their windshields — or to register with the county’s toll authority. The Katy Freeway carpool drivers must use the left-lanes only.” [Houston Chronicle, via Off the Kuff]
Read more about: Freeways and Toll Roads, I-10
“The eastbound main lanes are wide open all the way into downtown for the first time in more than 36 months. . . . Having this long stretch of roadway open paves the way for the final completion of the entire project slated for October 2008, a grand total of 23 miles.” [abc13]
Read more about: Freeways and Toll Roads, I-10, Openings and Closings

Robert Boyd ends his series of bicycle tours through the Memorial Villages with a ride through the west end of Spring Valley, and concludes:
Perhaps this is a good way to characterize the Memorial Villages. They will tolerate eccentricity, but only a very small amount of it.
These are wealthy folks, and I bet many of them consider themselves to be individualists. Let your freak flags fly! You live in the Villages–you’ve made it. So do something wild and unique with your house and yard that proclaims your uniqueness.
After the jump, a few more photo gems from Boyd’s Spring Valley travelogue.
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Read more about: 77055, Campbell Place, I-10, Memorial Villages, Spring Valley, Tours