My website has been down for most of the day, and it was so beautiful outside that I took this old, fat body, bought some large pots, and moved a very large agave from a wooden planter that was falling apart. Did it with the help of my wife.
I-10 near downtown Houston was designed to flood just like 288 near the Medical Center, so why are they elevating it now? Any person with half a brain knew that that portion of the I-10 would flood. White Oak Bayou is adjacent to the freeway. So one raised the freeway so it does not flood, what will they do with all that water that would sit there? Where will that water go now? What new areas will be flooded, or which areas will experience worse flooding? Just wondering?
Interstate 10 commuters in and out of downtown Houston should prepare for closures and delays starting Tuesday.
Why it matters: The I-10 White Oak Bayou elevation project is designed to alleviate flooding, but the construction is causing headaches.
Catch up quick: The $407 million undertaking will elevate about 1.8 miles of I-10 between Heights Boulevard and Interstate 45.
- The stretch of freeway has flooded 10 times since 1992, according to the Texas Department of Transportation, including during Tropical Storm Imelda in 2019. The project will elevate the main lanes out of the 100-year floodplain where they currently sit.
- The agency broke ground in January 2025. Since then, the highway has been reduced to two lanes for westbound drivers. The resulting heavier traffic has reverberated through downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.
What the proposed new section will be like.
The project will require a 21.7 acre detention basin to be built mostly (~3/4) UNDER the roadway, with a small part (~1/4) under open sky, just to detain the excess runoff from the project itself! See diagrams.
- the basin will not support much plant life in the absence of sunlight
- it will be a vast, dark place, collecting trash and runoff from the road – THINK HY 59 Downtown, except occasional standing pools of water
- with an overhead “roof” of freeway lanes, impounded water can stagnate, providing a breeding ground for mosquitoes (detention basins should be designed to function as wildlife benefiting wetlands with natural filtration)
I sometimes think that all these ongoing highway projects are just ways for politicians to pay off some of their contributors, since they don’t seem to make sense, at least not to me.
The Gulf Freeway has had ongoing construction since it was built.
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