Katy Freeway & Tollway Project Nears Completion in 2009
by Carson Coots, Guest Author and Publisher, of
the definitive Katy blog
If you live in Katy, you may have gathered that it seems like we are never going to see the end to the 23 mile concrete and steel wasteland otherwise known as the Katy Freeway. According to the the Katy Freeway Public Information team, the completion is near.
The $2.7 Billion construction project has been going on in phases since 2003, and the final road is expected to be complete in early 2009, with the final phase (AKA contract G) of I-10 East of 6-10 to Washington Ave. The freeway is expanded up to 18 lanes wide in some areas (including frontage and Toll/HOV lanes).
The most noteworthy part of this new freeway is the Katy Tollway. It is the first of it’s kind in Texas with “dynamic pricing”, meaning pricing will be based on optimizing the use of the freeway’s capacity, and commuter’s travel patterns will be the single largest variable. The Katy Tollway begins west of SH-6 and ends at the I-10/I-610 interchange. Located in the center portion of the I-10/Katy Freeway, the Tollway consists of two express lanes in each direction operating 7 days a week. The Tollway lanes will be separated from the regular I-10 lanes by 12-foot shoulders and flex-post traffic barriers.
This EZ-Tag only Tollway will an option for HOV drivers to use the toll road free during peak times in peak directions. There will be EZ Tag fee collection at three tolling locations, overhead signage that will indicate which lane drivers should be in based on occupancy, and will be dynamically priced to ensure better flow of traffic for paying drivers. Drivers will have multiple entrances and exit locations from both the eastbound and the westbound main lanes of I-10 with two right lanes for general EZ Tag users and a left lane at each tolling location specifically for HOV drivers.
So the long wait will finally pay off… and it’s been a long time coming. As for aesthetics, the contracts for landscaping the edges of this massive corridor are still in the air. In a few years, you may have forgotten the wasteland you put up with for the better part of a decade. Let’s hope so.
For more information on the Tollway and diagrams visit KatyFreeway.org
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Seems to me that charging any form of toll on a federal interstate highway is not only “Double Taxation”, but “Highly Illegal” as well. It might prove beneficial to wait until the 1st person pays this new type of toll charge and then take them to court to get it eliminated.
I totally overlooked this concept; thanks for opening this discussion. Julie