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Ceremonial groundbreaking held for I-45 expansion project
FOX 26 Reporter Damali Keith was at the ceremony held on Wednesday amid protestors.
Houston - It's been in the works for decades and now a multi-billion-dollar Houston highway expansion is finally getting started. It's called the I-45 North Houston Highway Improvement Project.
After 20 years of planning, a groundbreaking ceremony was held Wednesday for the $13 billion I-45 project. The expansion will get started with drainage improvements along St. Emmanuel Street in East Downtown. Ultimately, Interstate 45 will be widened from Downtown Houston all the way up to Beltway 8.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Breaking ground on I-45: Major highway project happening soon in Houston
"This is going to be the largest project TxDOT has going in the entire state of Texas. How we look at this is, population trends really drive a lot of our policy decisions. The city of Houston has grown by 200% since 1970. The city of Houston today is 7.3 million," says Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Bruce Bugg.
TxDOT celebrated the kick-off of the project with a sports theme.
"Think of it as improving the offensive line with shoulders, safer exit designs, better sight lines to give drivers more time and space to react. Anyone who's played on this field, meaning driven through downtown Houston knows I-45 is congested...by adding four managed lanes, non-toll, two in each direction, we're setting up I-45 to score big," explains TxDOT Deputy District Engineer Varuna Singh.
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"We're widening the port because we're fixing to have the greatest port in the world with the depth and widening. What do you think those trucks, how are they going to get to the port? They're going to get on this expansion. Our med center, our retail, our sports venue...this is important to Houston," adds Houston Mayor John Whitmire.
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Protestors, who say the I-45 expansion is going to take 1,000 homes and dozens of businesses, could be heard booing outside.
"Yes, we've got critics. I heard some of our fans across the street a while ago. If you're making a difference, you're going to have critics," says the mayor.
TxDOT says this project will create better drainage, a safer highway, tens of thousands of jobs, and no tolls to pay for it.