Posted on 11/07/2004 6:58:42 AM PST by maui_hawaii
It was the highest bridge in Texas when it opened in 1959.
The new rail line would have run next to Ellington airport and skirted the north side of Clear Lake City before ending within the Bayport industrial complex just east of Red Bluff, about midway between Bay Area Blvd and Fairmont Pky. It was cancelled after an agreement was reached (in part brokered by Tom DeLay) for the 2 competing railroads to share an existing line that runs along Hwy 225 and the Ship Channel industries.
As to the Red Bluff freeway, it was at one time killed but appears to be resurrected as a 4-lane tollway that will begin construction in 2009. Some of the info I've seen suggested it might run entirely down Fairmont Pky, instead of the original plan to turn southeast down Red Bluff. However my gut says it will run on the latter corridor. Interesting that the port's Bayport master plan map doesn't show a freeway interchange for Red Bluff & 146, and all ramps into and out of the port only connect to/from the north side of 146. But I wouldn't rule out them adding ramps from Red Bluff both into the port and southbound onto 146.
Bayport master plan:
http://www.portofhouston.com/pdf/genifo/POHA-BayportMasterPlan.pdf
Bayport website:
http://www.zachrybayporteam.com/live/home.htm
Port of Houston website:
http://www.portofhouston.com/geninfo/bayportproject.html
makes sense.
the los angeles/long beach harbor is maxed out. and the traffic in the area is horrendous. this is not to say that the harbor and roads and trains could not be modernized, but with nimby's? nada.
there was a time when the mexicans wanted to build a port just south of yuma, to cut los angeles/long beach out of the action.
bringing stuff to the mid-part of the u.s. makes sense.
you can't stop progress
Excellent post.
Sounds to me that its Houston's to lose...that highway is going to give H-town the leg up to attract many businesses.
I wonder what Jacksonville has up its sleeve?
Time is money...
Indeed.
And you know Bay Area Blvd also connects to Port Rd.
I drove past the construction for Phase-I the other day, they aren't wasting any time.
I hope they use the Fairmont/Beltway corridor to 146 rather than Red Bluff.
That is a good satellite picture you had also, I saved it.
And like you said, those folks on Todville Rd down toward the project are in Pasadena and LaPort.
I wonder if the best compromise might be to end up having the freeway run down most of Red Bluff (since the land is already there and there's not the drainage issues that using Fairmont Pkwy all the way would have) but at the southern end cross the open land at the south edge of the Bayport industrial complex and put the interchange with 146 further north at Port Road? That way they wouldn't have the condemnation, noise, aesthetic(high ramps next to residences) or complexity issues of R.B./146 or F.P./146 interchanges, since all the new land required would be open land in and adjacent to an industrial area. The environmentalists would scream about the loss of wetlands, but it is really only a small sliver. I'd run it on the backside(south) border of the industries on Bay Area Blvd, then next to Port Road and the railroad tracks. That connector portion wouldn't need frontage roads, just the 4 main lines, an exit just west of Port Rd/146, and ramps to/from south 146. Local traffic to the industries can simply use the existing Bay Area Blvd, and local traffic to the residential areas use the existing Red Bluff.
Hallelujah! More cheap sh!t from China to widen our trade deficit. This isn't trade because trade is two sided.This is imports. So the port of entry moves from California to Houston and this is something to make a big deal about ?
RE:Hutchinson Wampoa
See http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/1/6/174054.shtml for info on bid last year by the son of Hutchin Wampoa director to purchase a large portion of Air Canada. Are there any connections with Venezuela (only western hemisphere OPEC country)?
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