HOUSTON — Another block of Dunlavy Street was closed to traffic this week as the installation of towering utility poles continued.
"They’re kind of cool," Montrose resident Erika Park said. "It’s fun to watch because the cranes go crazy high.”
She and others look forward to more reliable electricity, especially during storms.
“I think it’s going to be good, I guess," Park said. "Better, right?”
However, blocking entire sidewalks is raising new concerns among many. That includes someone who tagged KHOU 11 News in a social media post on Thursday morning.
"If you can make a bike ramp and lose a lane, can’t you keep a sidewalk?" resident Ernie Pina-Sandoval said. "I mean, that makes no sense.”
Longtime Cafe Brasil owner Daniel Fergus considers the poles atrocious.
"Not a way to make the city beautiful,” Fergus said.
But he also wonders about disabled pedestrians who may find them hard to get around. -- the same people he's required to accommodate in his business.
"It’s not just difficult for people with disabilities, but anyone with a baby carriage, anyone who wants to not be in the street with traffic,” Fergus said.
CenterPoint said in a previous story about the poles that those in the right-of-way did not require customer notification and that the overall goal is to enhance the area’s electric system. Workers showed up Thursday afternoon to remove mounded dirt from the base of several poles.
"We need to do the right thing for the community,” Pina-Sandoval said.
KHOU 11 News previously checked with the City of Houston about the poles and was told that it would pursue any necessary enforcement actions if violations were found.
CenterPoint provided this statement:
"CenterPoint Energy is conducting an electric system enhancement project in Montrose, which includes upgrading our transmission structures to enhance resiliency. In order to conduct this work, we acquired the necessary Americans with Disabilities Act mobility permit to temporarily close the sidewalk. In addition, the temporary wooden pole next to it will be removed and the sidewalk will be rerouted."