Southwest Freeway Study Aims To Ease Congestion

 

The stretch of US 59 South from downtown Houston to Beltway 8 carries about 300,000 vehicles a day. But because of right-of-way constraints there’s not a lot of room to expand.

H-GAC’s Alan Clark says that means they need to come up with other ways to keep traffic moving. One of the ideas they’re considering is a system of dynamic message boards that give specific information about accidents and slowdowns. They’re also looking at reconfiguring entrances and exits near Buffalo Speedway and Kirby.

Clark says another idea is to allow two-way traffic on the 59 South HOV lanes. He spoke after the Transportation Policy Council meeting.

“It would provide a much more reliable experience for those that are using transit, hopefully encourage more people to use transit or to do a vanpool or a carpool,” says Clark.

Clark explains those improvements would cost well into the millions, but in the long run they could save a lot of money for taxpayers.

“On an average year the congestion costs are over $200 million on this section of freeway alone,” says Clark. “So we could implement these recommendations. They would pay back to the public several times what the investment cost would be.”

H-GAC is currently seeking comment on the plan and there’s a public hearing set for November.