The city of Houston has presented a new option for the El Dorado Boulevard widening project, which can be voted on by the public until Aug. 7.

The existing two-lane roadway on El Dorado would be widened to four lanes from Clear Lake City Boulevard to Horsepen Bayou, according to a media release from the office of Houston Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin. The design calls for a 17-foot median and can be seen here.

The new option posed to the community through this online survey is to install a median swale on El Dorado from Clear Lake City to Horsepen Bayou. A swale is a shallow ditch, which can help drain stormwater and also provide an area to plant new trees, per the release. The proposed ditch will be located in the 17-foot median and is 2 feet deep by 16 feet wide, spanning roughly 1 mile.

The release cites budget constraints as the reason for the new option. Input provided by residents in the survey will have an impact on the timeline and look of the overall project, per the media release. At the end of the survey period, the results will be evaluated by Houston Public Works and reported to Harris County Precinct 2. The survey will be available until Aug. 7 at 5 p.m.

Martin and the city of Houston Public Works hosted a public input meeting in November 2017 to discuss proposed alignment options for the widening and gather input from surrounding communities. Public comment was collected on the project in December 2017. Work on the project began in late May 2020.