Ready or not, the I-45 expansion is coming with housing displacements for many people and construction headaches lasting years.
The Texas Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration announced this week that they have struck a deal regarding the federal civil rights complaint that has had the $9 billion I-45 project idling for the past two years.“Through this agreement the community will have a greater voice in the design and throughout the project’s life cycle,” Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Batt stated in a release.
Why? Well, mainly because the planned expansion is going to roll right over any homes and businesses in its path. TXDOT estimates that by the time it is completed the project will displace more than 1,300 families, 300 businesses, and at least five places of worship. And it just so happens that most of these homes and businesses are in Independence Heights and Fifth Ward.
Despite this history, residents of these communities will once again see homes, stores and churches sacrificed to bring noisy pollution-clouded roadways even closer to remaining structures—and all in the name of progress. Maybe. If you want proof, look no further than the Katy Freeway. The Katy Freeway expansion was a $2.2 billion modern marvel of engineering with 23 lanes that aimed to make the 2004 second worst bottleneck in the nation, according to American Highway Users Alliance, into a smooth-running freeway. Except, of course, it infamously didn’t. In fact, Houston’s own traffic data has showed that the travel time increased.
Finally in March 2021, Harris County filed a federal lawsuit under the National Environmental Policy Act, a federal law that requires environmental consideration for any projects that need federal action. The day the suit was filed the FHA asked TXDOT to put the project on hold due to civil rights concerns under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Now the state must do a number of things to ensure that community members are being heard throughout this process. That includes holding two public meetings a year throughout the design and construction of the project. The state must also place air quality monitors along the route a year before construction begins; update FHA every 180 days about the project’s status; allocate $30 million to affordable housing; and fund, design and construct new trails, biking paths, and green space.
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