The lane expansion of I-45 in Houston has been a plan fraught with racism, classism, and environmental hazards, much like the decades’ long history of highway expansion. In order to field the many demands of community members and organizations who have relentlessly pushed back against the expansion, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has been bound to provide progress reports as a part of the Voluntary Resolution Agreement (VRA) it made with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The VRA is also a document not without problems, as it was not developed with community input, however it outlines actions that TxDOT is required to take to resolve the civil rights complaint filed against the project.
Groups like LINK Houston, Air Alliance Houston, Stop TxDOT I-45, Texas Appleseed, and Texas Housers have worked together alongside community for months to address the many problems this expansion is bringing to Houston. In this time, we have reviewed the very first progress report from TxDOT, and we have found that what they have submitted is incomplete. The state must divulge far more detail into how they will rectify the many hardships, setbacks, removal of land and generational culture this highway expansion has caused.
LINK Houston has posted our joint assessment of the progress report on their website and it details exactly where TxDOT has failed to meet the basic requirements of the VRA by several unique parameters. Starting this week, TxDOT will host six public meetings on implementation of the VRA. It is imperative that as many voices as possible share their concerns with the many ways TxDOT is not meeting even the most minimal guidelines to engage the community they are disrupting with this expansion.
What is most important at this stage of the expansion is that information is freely shared and decisions are not made without community engagement and input. With what is missing from this progress report, we are concerned this process feels familiar to the closed-door decision making that put many of these affected communities in this situation in the first place.
We at Texas Housers highly encourage you to read the joint assessment at LINK Houston to gain a sense of the major work that is in front of TxDOT, and how we cannot allow quietly for the I-45 expansion to continue an unchecked erosion of low income neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color without any meaningful accountability from state or federal government.
