Freeway Foolishness
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The State of Texas is spending a stupid amount of money to fix just one of Houston’s freeways. We think taxpayers should demand a full review to see if all this is still worth it or if this is just FREEWAY FOOLISHNESS.
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They want us to believe traffic on the North Freeway is getting worse.
False. It’s exactly getting better.
They tell us the expansion of the North Freeway will cost 10-billion dollars of your money.
False again. It could be double that amount.
Welcome to the tall tales of the Texas Department of Transportation. We call then TXDOT.
“TXDOT making a bold prediction about Houston traffic. The agency says it plans to reduce rush hour delays by 50% in downtown,” said KHOU reporter.
“The North Houston Highway Improvement Project is planned to be one of the biggest infrastructure projects our community will see in a generation,” said Sylvester Turner.
The Texas Department of Transportation, it started the biggest construction project in Houston history.
Right now, they are supposedly mitigating the flood threat in EADO.
All part of a plan to rebuild, widen, and modernize the north freeway from downtown Houston to beltway-8 in ways that are hard to imagine.
Including the closure of the Pierce elevated, which we all agree is a bottleneck.
Several stretches of the new highway will be built underground.
More than 24 miles of construction in 3 separate phases.
It will be finished; they say in 20 years. That’s a generation.
To do this TXDOT will wipe off the map nearly one thousand apartments or public housing units, 340 businesses, 158 houses, 5 churches, and 2 schools.
But is all this really worth your money?
Mike Moritz says no way.
“Stop TXDOT is almost five years old. And before that, there were groups, make i45 better coalition other people who’ve been fighting for this project, either to make it better and less destructive or to stop it,” said Moritz.
The project hasn’t been stopped but some of the lies have been exposed.
And it’s time all Houstonians pay closer attention.
Let’s start with the justification for this massive freeway expansion in the first place.
“What’s this critical need generated by? Well, interstate 45 was constructed more than 50 years ago, or the greater Houston population was only about 2 million people. Today, we’re about 7 million people, and by 2050, we’re projected to have a population around 13 million people,” said Steve Hrncir.
But the numbers don’t lie, the Houston area’s growing population doesn’t necessarily mean it needs bigger freeways in and out of downtown.
“Even before the pandemic dramatically changed commute patterns, the number of cars on i-45 was steadily decreasing over time for the last 15 years. So, it runs in opposition to some of the congestion projections that TXDOT used to justify the project,” said Moritz.
Look at this. We took traffic data TXDOT posts online averaging the daily traffic flow on seven points along I-45 from downtown to the beltway.
In 2003, when TXDOT started studying the project, traffic on this stretch of I-45 at its peak was an average of 290-thousand cars per day.
But vehicle traffic tapered off by 19% after that, even before covid hit. And folks discovered how much they’d rather work from home.
The average daily traffic flow on the north freeway for 2022 is 25% lower than it was in 2003.
That’s the latest information available online.
“People are just unwilling to deal with so much congestion, and they either travel at different times or they take a different mode, or they go to a different place,” said Moritz.
The project’s price tag is a fantasy. A big one.
In 2017, it was advertised as a 7 billion project but has grown to nearly 10 billion because of delays and material price increases.
But look a little closer, taxpayers.
TXDOT tells us that number “does not account for estimated right of way costs.”
That’s the cost of buying up the land and buildings that are in the way and relocating all the little people who live work in those buildings.
This is where the real money is spent and made.
“Things are not going the way that that the common taxpayer would want them to go. Let’s just put it that way,” said Moritz.
Moritz and his group were on the front lines trying to save the demolition of the Lofts at The Ballpark near Minute Maid Park.
Only one of the three buildings was in the right of way for the 45 project, but TXDOT bought the entire complex.
“I know buildings get sold for more than the appraised value all the time, but i mean, 40% more, 50% more, is kind of a lot,” said Moritz.
It was actually 57% higher.
The Harris County appraisal district valued the lofts at the ballpark property at 69 million dollars.
“The owner of the building purchased the property just six months before they sold it to TXDOT in a voluntary sale,” said Moritz.
TXDOT paid the owner Banyan Drake Lofts more than 106 million dollars. Your tax dollars.
“Folks who bought that building and flipped it to TXDOT did so on the backs of taxpayers,” said Moritz.
Ben Brosseau is the managing member of Banyan Drake Lofts. It was formed in Delaware in February of 2020. Filed to do business in Texas in May, three months later. Bought the property the following month, June.
And sold to TXDOT 5 months later in November. He dissolved the company in February of 2023.
We tried to reach him at the 4.7-million-dollar home he now owns in Pacific Palisades California.
Ben Brosseau is also associated with at least two other entities that own land in the north freeway expansion right of way.
But he bought them before the final right of way was decided. Maybe he just got lucky, or maybe he knows someone or something that the rest of us wish we knew.
“They will receive an acquisition offer and help with moving expenses. In addition, they will receive money to both search for a new location and reestablish their business,” said Steve Hrncir.
Or make enough money to simply buy a private island in the Maldives and never work again.
We do some crack research here at Dolcefino Media, so we thought we would share with you just a few of the folks cashing in on the 45 right of way giveaway!
The Houston Sports Authority sold property to TXDOT for 121-million dollars!
Avalon furniture valued by HCAD at 2.3 million in 2023 went for 23 million.
Records from TXDOT show they have bought 97 properties since 2017.
For each one, there was a reappraisal. Those appraisals averaged 2 ½ times higher than the Harris County appraisals.
Taxpayers are buying these properties, on average, for more than 3 times the Harris County appraisal value.
100 acres, 1 billion dollars in right of way acquisition costs so far.
That’s 10 million dollars per acre.
“What I have learned recently through the Houston Galveston area council’s four-year transportation funding plan for 2025 through 2028 is the TXDOT anticipates that they will need about $7 billion to purchase all of the land on this project. So, it’s not quite double the cost, but it’s a lot,” said Moritz.
One of the first properties TXDOT bought was Clayton Homes, it was valued by HCAD at 26 million dollars, but sold for 90 million dollars.
More than sixty millions of those dollars were then used by the Houston Housing Authority for two suspect land deals on both sides of Buffalo Bayou.
One led to that that 146-million-dollar East End low income housing project on Middle Street.
But the spending doesn’t stop there. The city of Houston and Harris County are also spending millions of dollars because of this expansion project.
So far both are trying to keep the number a secret.
But we can know the county has hired engineering and legal firms, of course.
Records show the transportation policy council has coughed up more than 151-million dollars in your tax money for this freeway makeover.
The billion dollars spent so far on right of ways worth means an annual loss of 4.7 million dollars in taxes.
“The city’s ability to pay for its services, that’s a big topic of discussion right now amongst the city is how do we pay for services that people rely on? And it will become increasingly difficult if, we lose $100 million a year of tax revenue,” said Moritz.
TXDOT is spending money on slick videos to let you know we are really helping the poor who are being forced out of their homes.
Divine and her mom are former Clayton Homes residents who are now homeowners.
But according to TXDOT’s February progress report, only 3 of 215 Houston Housing Authority households got money to buy a home out of this deal.
“I was coerced and grossly misinformed into supporting the expansion,” said Jazmine Gaston.
Jasmine Gaston testified before TXDOT board members in 2021.
It’s no surprise she’s not in one of those marketing videos. So far, the state won’t even tell us how much they’ve spent on them.
“There’s a huge injustice being done to people that already don’t have anything,” said a former Clayton Homes resident.
This woman says she was forced out of the Beatriz Apartments this year when TXDOT bought that place.
“These multiple family dwellings get bought up, and then they go into deals with the housing, the Houston Housing Authority, and then they turn around, and then it gets sold and everybody’s patting their pockets,” said former Clayton Homes resident.
There’s little doubt that the North Freeway could use some improvements. It’s old and parts flood.
I don’t want to break up a good government spending party, but it’s time that we ask seriously. Do we really need to do all this? Do we really need to spend all this money?
By the time they are finished the new parts they build will be old again.
2 years ago, public opposition to expanding a major in California highway forced the state to change the plan.
Why isn’t anyone asking these questions about the North Freeway project? We think it’s time.
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