On Nov. 16, the Texas Department of Transportation announced it completed another milestone of its ongoing initiative to widen Hwy. 290. A new ramp is now in place connecting eastbound Hwy. 290 mainlanes to eastbound lanes of Loop 610 North. TxDOT officials also recently completed new eastbound mainlanes between West 34th Street and Loop 610. All of these milestones signify that work is moving along toward the goal of alleviating a major source of frustration for drivers at the interchange—moving from Loop 610 westbound to Hwy. 290 westbound. Drivers who take this ramp today have to deal with traffic backups as two lanes merge into one. With work on the eastbound lanes of this portion of the highway all but completed, crews will begin focusing on the westbound side, including a new ramp from Loop 610 to Hwy. 290 without the merge. The new ramp will open sometime in 2018, and I am sure drivers who commute from Cy-Fair to the inner loop would prefer sooner rather than later.