West Houston Association    INFO@westhouston.org   V  713.461.9378    F  713.461.3065    MARCH 4, 2010

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2009 WHA Report to Members (Click for pdf)

In This Edition

• Revenue is in Freefall: TxDOT's Delvin Dennis Reports to the  Association on Houston District Funding & Projects

• They Need to Know How Bad It Is Going to Get

• 2010 Development Maps Shipping Mid-March

Houston District Engineer Delvin Dennis Addresses the West Houston Association-"Revenue is in Freefall"

Reporting at the March 2 Issues Forum, TxDOT Houston District Engineer Delvin Dennis praised the Interstate 10 West project and its positive impact on West Houston.   He added that the financial landscape has changed and revenue is in freefall.  (Read a Summary of his comments at this link)

EDITORIAL   They Need to Know How Bad It Is Going to Get

Quite a bit has been said about transportation funding and the need for highway and street improvements in Houston and around Texas.   Recent years in Houston  have been good to us.  We have enjoyed a relative high level of funding that has translated into projects like Interstate 10 West, Westpark Tollway and continuing improvements to Sam Houston Parkway.

An independent group, The 2030 Committee, assessed statewide needs and came up with a funding need of $351 billion or $14.3 billion per year to maintain and build new facilities.  However, Texas because of dwindling resources can only fund $2 to 3 billion in projects annually.  It is borrowing from maintenance funds to keep a small construction program going.  The resulting gap is enormous and daunting for everyone involved from Legislators and the driving public to the good folks at the Texas Department of Transportation.

Most of the Association's member companies are very much aware of what the "gap" means for mobility and, indeed, their businesses.  However, these numbers are so huge it is difficult for the average individual to grasp.

This is where closing the funding gap must begin, at the level of the Houston motorist, some of whom do not even know that I-10 West was not built by the City of Houston.  On top of that,  they certainly don't know how it was paid for.

When these motorists learn that the US 290 project or the I-45 North project--the list goes on and on--will not be done, that they are NOT in the plans, they will understand the scope of the problem.  This knowledge will eventually turn into anger and demands that something be done.

The next step will then be "mobilizing" and focusing this energy to actually get something done in the next session of the Legislature.  State Senators John Carona and Kirk Watson recently had their say about the funding problem and the need for action.  You can read a copy of their recent editorial at this link.

2010 West Houston Development Map Nears Distribution

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