Community Impact reports that as the I-45 corridor of traffic grows from Beltway 8 North to South Loop 336 in Conroe, TxDOT is making plans to improve the situation.
In 2019, public discussion got underway with meetings on improving mobility and safety along the I-45 corridor. Phase #2 is underway in the Planning and Environmental Linkages Study, which involves community meetings. The first meeting was held in mid-January in southern Montgomery County at Oak Ridge High School.
As a result of the ideas and suggestions gathered in public discussions, TxDOT will analyze and move forward with more formalized plans. Getting underway early next year, final hearings for the public are planned.
During TxDOT’s public meetings on the corridor on January 17 and 19, the department passed along three basic alternatives to the present structure of I-45 in this 24 mile highway segment:
–Using the roadway already there and put in a single high-occupancy lane and five main lanes going both north and south.
–Making the roadway wider and creating two HOV lanes and four-to five lanes north and south.
–Building two elevated HOV lanes headed north and south.
Safety is a concern as information from TxDOT shows 16.581 crashes on I-45 from 2017-21 between Beltway 8 and South Loop 336. The record shows 339 of those accidents were fatal.
