Construction to begin on Hwy. 290

TxDOT is already in the process of connecting Hwy. 290 to I-10 beginning at the Hwy. 290/ I-610 interchange. This will allow drivers going eastbound on Hwy. 290 and those travelling westbound on the North Loop to directly connect to I-10 via ramp. TxDOT hopes to have the interchange completed by 2015 and a ramp for drivers going the opposite directions on Hwy. 290 and I-610 completed by 2016.

"Traffic can be bad there, especially in the morning when people have to get on the little part of the I-610 west loop going south when there is only about a mile and a half between 290 and I-10," said Mike Zientek, senior public involvement representative for the U.S. 290 Program. "This will separate that traffic, giving the people that want to go to I-10 their own road and they won't have to compete with the 610 drivers anymore."

The next phase, scheduled to begin in 2018, involves the reconstruction and widening of Hwy. 290 from Pinemont to 34th Street to four lanes.

Interim projects

Many of the Hwy. 290 traffic system management projects will start after summer this year and will add modifications like combined left-turn lanes, u-turn lanes and auxiliary lanes, which are designated lanes between highway entrances and exits that cut down on traffic and allow easier movement between lanes.

A westbound frontage road will be added to Hwy. 290 westbound at Barker Cypress to help alleviate bottleneck build-up at rush hour.

"Right now, if you want to go north or south on Barker Cypress outbound you have to go around the beltway to get to the intersection and wait at the light to go north or south," Zientek said. "After the project is completed, instead of going through a light to go south, you would go straight along the frontage road and take a new ramp to take you to the southbound Barker Cypress Road."

There will be a similar ramp to go north on Barker Cypress.

Intersection improvements at Hwy. 6, Spring Cypress, Skinner and Cypress Rosehill/Fry will include dedicated right-turn lanes on both sides of Hwy. 290 at Hwy. 6 as well as new left-turn lane options.

"Spring Cypress is another one of those intersections where we can do some small improvements both on the outbound and inbound sides of 290," Zientek said. "Right now, there are turn lanes on both sides. We want to cut back the median so you can do a u-turn or left turn, having two lanes going left instead of just one."

Building continuous frontage roads along Beltway 8, located under Hwy. 290 and over the existing railroad tracks, should ease congestion on Senate in the Jersey Village area, Zientek said.

Intersection improvements on the Hwy. 290 eastbound frontage road at Eldridge Parkway will include a dedicated right-turn lane onto Eldridge.

An auxiliary lane will be added to Hwy. 290 eastbound between Telge and Huffmeister.

The existing direct connectors linking Hwy. 290 and Beltway 8 will remain operational except for short periods of time for construction phasing.

Funding problems

The Northwest Houston section is just part of the plan to widen and reconstruct the 38-mile total Hwy. 290 prorgram. With an uncertain completion date due to funding issues, construction will roll out on Hwy. 290 from I-610 to FM 2920 over several years.

While TxDOT will soon begin taking bids on the Hwy. 290 and Beltway area construction, it does not have funding to start anything west of Beltway 8.

"We rely on a lot of our funding from the money that comes from the gas tax," said Karen Othon, Hwy. 290 TxDOT public information officer. "More people are driving hybrid vehicles and carpooling so we are not seeing as much money as we would like from the gas tax."

TxDOT will continue to check if any state money or federal money is available. TxDOT officials hope thriftiness will pay off.

"When contractors finish projects lower than our engineer's estimate we can take that difference and allocate it toward other projects," Othon said.