I-45 Expansion Project: City of Houston plans to sell 2.99 acres along White Oak Bayou near downtown to TxDOT

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A group known as StopTxDotI45 is calling on the city of Houston to refrain from selling a portion of land near downtown that would be used for TxDOT’s I-45 expansion project.

The City Council will vote next week on whether to sell 2.99 acres along White Oak Bayou to TxDOT for $261,051.00.

The bayou portion contains trails and is located across from the University of Houston-Downtown, near Milam and Commerce.

Chloe Cook is with Stop TxDotI45 and told ABC13 the whole project is bad for the city of Houston.

“There are definitely a lot of negatives to urban highway expansion and almost no positives for almost everyone,” she explained.

TxDOT touted mobility improvements as the driving force behind the $9 billion project, which endured years of planning, design, protests and even a Harris County lawsuit.

They announced in November that they were almost ready to begin construction.

Cook said the portion of land the city could sell would ultimately suffer from the construction of more highway lanes on top of it.

“There’s just no way to say that this won’t affect wildlife, the experience of being a user of this trail, or that it won’t deteriorate air quality,” Cook said .

TxDOT’s website says the expansion project will improve bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. Yet they did not respond to ABC13’s specific questions about this area when this article was published.

The City Council was supposed to vote on the sale this week, but it was delayed so District H Councilman Mario Castillo could ask TxDOT more questions about the project.

The vote is now scheduled for next Wednesday.

For updates, follow Chaz Miller on Facebook, X and Instagram.