Part 3, Pages 236-171
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If any Houston freeway is deserving of a big yawn, it’s the Northwest Freeway. There is nothing particularly interesting about its history, its associated urban development, or the freeway itself. In spite of being relatively new, it is one of Houston’s smallest freeways. The only notable feature of the Northwest Freeway corridor is the huge stack interchange at Beltway 8. In 1999 a Houston Chronicle report on the freeway stated, “The Northwest Freeway is, in some senses, the anonymous freeway. Unlike others in Houston, it doesn’t extend all the way downtown. It isn’t part of a major national corridor like an interstate. It was built and opened in small chunks in four different decades and simply carries huge numbers of commuters from the northwest suburbs to their jobs.”
 
 
If any major transportation facility in Houston can be attributed to the efforts of one individual, it is the Hardy Toll Road. Jon Lindsay made this project happen. Not only did then Harris County Judge Lindsay make the Hardy Toll Road happen, but he did it in the face of substantial opposition to the project. Building an all-new, limited-access transportation facility is a big accomplishment in the modern era. Doing it nearly single-handedly is even more impressive.
 
 
 
In 1954 Houston’s core freeway network was defined and construction progressed quickly on most of the freeways. But there was one freeway in the original plan that was left behind in the construction spurt of the 1960s: the Northeast Freeway. Nearly 50 years later the Northeast Freeway, which was renamed the Crosby Freeway in 1988, still remains unfinished. The Crosby Freeway may have been left behind, but it was not forgotten. The freeway outside Beltway 8 was completed in 1991, and most of the remaining section is scheduled for construction before 2010, although much of it may have frontage roads only.
 
In May 1988 a group of Houston’s key transportation policymakers met secretly in a downtown conference room. One after another, the top officials committed millions of dollars to a new transportation initiative to benefit a key local interest. An hour and a half later, when the dealing was done, $235 million had been put on the table. Included in the bag of goodies was acceleration of a brand-new, $253 million freeway.
 
 
Fifty-one years after the Westpark Freeway was first drawn on the master plan map, motorists will take their first drive on the Westpark Tollway.
 
 
Negotiations between HCTRA and Metro continued into 1999. Finally in September 1999, a deal was reached. Metro would sell a 50-foot (15 m) strip of the Westpark corridor, half of the 100-foot (30 m) corridor width, to HCTRA. HCTRA would pay $14.3 million for 13 miles (21 km) of the 50-foot strip. Metro would retain 50 feet for future transit use, which was envisioned as a light rail line. On November 18, 1999, the Metro board of directors formally approved the land sale. The Westpark Tollway would be built.
 
Persistence. Determination. Perseverance. Multiple lives. If a freeway could have personality traits, these would be the traits of the Fort Bend Parkway. No other freeway in Houston has overcome as much adversity as the Fort Bend Parkway in its long road to construction. It has been rejected by TxDOT, left for dead by the city of Houston, brought back to life by Fort Bend County, and then put into limbo by increasingly complex environmental regulations and funding shortages. But in November 2000, the time for the Fort Bend Parkway finally arrived with voter approval of bonds to construct the parkway. After 42 years of struggle it would prevail, although it would be a tollway rather than a freeway.
 
 
The Alvin Freeway is perhaps Houston’s only freeway that could be called a survivor. It persisted on Houston’s freeway master plan in spite of community protest in the early 1970s, the highway funding crisis of the mid-1970s, and the failure of development and demand to materialize in its corridor. It remains somewhat uncertain if or when the full Alvin Freeway will be constructed. However, new suburbanization in the freeway corridor will probably ensure the survival and ultimate construction of the freeway.
 
The frontage roads for the proposed Red Bluff Freeway were complete by 1969, but land development in the corridor did not occur as anticipated. In 2003 Red Bluff Road remained largely semirural, traversing through forests and pastures. Construction of the freeway main lanes on the 300-foot-wide (91 m) corridor is not planned as of 2003.
 
 
Approximately 45 years after the original announcement of the NASA space center, the principal road serving NASA will finally be brought into the modern era. It was a long wait, but the end result will be a new freeway for Houston.
 
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