HOUSTON — How about some good traffic news for a change? Anyone who drives through Memorial Park will be happy to know the new westbound tunnel lanes opened on Tuesday.
The eastbound lanes opened back in March.
The massive tunnels run under the park's new land bridge, which will serve as a safe crossing for pedestrians and wildlife. Each tunnel is 25 feet tall and 54 feet wide.
The land bridge portion is expected to be done later this year. The bridge will connect the north and south sides of Memorial Park while re-introducing the endangered native Gulf Coast prairie back into the park.
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“Acres and acres of prairie grasses and flowers, trees and trails, wildlife," President & CEO of Memorial Park Conservancy Shellye Arnold said.
The entire project will create 100-acres of green space area. Arnold says those 35-foot-hills will have some pretty amazing views of downtown and uptown.
She says the $70 million, 100-acre project will also help the environment.
"It’s also with the plantings that we’re doing and the restoration of the ecology, we’re bringing the ecology back to its native state, its native and healthy resilient state, which is as a native Gulf Coast prairie, which absorbs relatively more storm water and absorbs relatively more carbon.”
The project started in 2020.