HOUSTON — Shovels are now in the ground to symbolically mark the start of what is said to be a transformational construction project for I-45 in Houston.
Officials packed the Pitch 25 restaurant in the EaDo neighborhood, near the site of the first phase of the North Houston Highway Improvement Project for a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday.
"This is a monumental day for Houston, this is a monumental day for TXDOT and I'm excited to see this project finally begin to move forward," TXDOT Executive Director Marc Williams said at the event.
The project aims to widen and add lanes as well as improve drainage along I-45 from downtown north to Beltway 8. Supporters believe the project will improve the highway's traffic flow to meet the region's growing population and increasing congestion.
Officials also tout the potential economic impact an improved I-45 could have.
"We understand the importance of mobility which we're improving today not only for folks that live here, certainly the neighborhoods that provide services, think about the institutions that this project will support," Mayor John Whitmire said. "Our med center, our retail, our sports venues, we're all in this together."
But as officials posed with shovels for a ceremonial groundbreaking outside, protesters voiced their opposition to the project with chants and boos.
"The more infrastructure that we build for cars, the less opportunity that we have to build things that we really want," Chloe Cooke, a volunteer and organizer with the group Stop TxDOT I-45, told KHOU 11 News.
Cooke said her and others' concerns centered around the displacement of residents along the project's path, the impact on businesses, the costs of the project, public health and environmental issues.
While ground has symbolically been broken, Cooke said her group and other opponents of the project will continue to express their disapproval.
"Almost every freeway project that's been stopped has been stopped after shovels are in the ground," Cooke said. "So our fight hasn't changed; this project will cost $50 million a mile, it's only getting more expensive by the day and it is an incredibly poor use of taxpayer funds too, so we are not going to stop fighting this project."