Katy Freeway
• 40 mile section of IH 10 from downtown Houston to the Brazos River
• Constructed in the 1960’s
• Design capacity of 79,200 vehicles per day– Pavement design life of 20 years
• Part of Interstate Highway System
• Maintenance cost $ 49,375 per mile
Katy Freeway - Reality
GRIDLOCK• 207,800 vehicles per day
• 11 hours daily congestion
• 30 to 40 year old pavement
• Annual maintenance costs of $ 197,500/mile (4 times normal highway maintenance costs)
• 23 mile section from IH 610 to Fort Bend County line
• 8 main lanes, 2 managed lanes, 6 feeder lanes
• Construction 2003 - 2009
• 10 Sections
• Beginning at east and west ends working to center
• First construction contract awarded June 11, 2003
$ 2,400,000,000
CONSTRUCTION COST
(excludes ROW,utilities)
UTILITY ADJUSTMENTS• Expense of TxDOT’s ROW Division• ROW acquisition,relocation assistance,utility
relocation $599,000,000 • Construction period spans 2003-2009• Annual Statewide Budget - $300,000,000 for all
TxDOT ROW Division• Katy utility adjustments alone will be one-third of
ROW Division’s budget for three years running
CenterPoint Energy Work
• 40 miles of OH distribution
• 42 underground distribution crossings
• 21.5 miles of Entex gas lines
• Fiber optic reroute and one T-comm antennae
• 5.7 miles OH Transmission 138kV double circuit converted to UG
• 3 Substations modified for UG Transmission
$ 110,000,000
• Transmission • Substation• Overhead Distribution• Underground Distribution• Fiber Optics• Entex
28 Contracts over 2003 - 2006
Bureaucratic Red Tape
• Unprecedented amount of Bureaucratic red tape
• Extended review/approval time for Utility Adjustment contracts
• Hesitant to make decisions• Disconnect between TxDOT’s
local office and Austin
TXDOT • Contract required for relocations prior to start
of any construction
• Austin-TXDOT review/approval of contracts
• Construction overhead cost issue
• 431 parcels required for project .Not all parcels acquired prior to construction letting
• GEC (PB) controls project
• Project Website established
CenterPoint Energy Underground Distribution
• 45 locations with proposed underground
• 42 crossings of I-10 (Katy Freeway)
• 90 estimates/work orders
• Plan & profile drawings and traffic control plans - 120 drawings, 80 traffic control [plans
CEHE• Drawing review required by all utilities through GEC -
PB
• Project crossed ROW of several governmental agencies – TXDOT– Harris County Flood Control– Army Corp of Engineers– City of Houston– Hedwig Village– Spring Valley– Hunters Creek
CEHE• TXDOT lacked numerous parcels but still
expedited construction schedule
• Directional bores
• 3 dry bore crossings
• Existing easements, required temporary construction easements for work area
• City permits - lane closures,street cuts
CEHE Distribution Underground Status
• 10 Sections (42 crossings total)– 24 crossings complete – Sections 1,2,8,9,10 - 100% complete– 8 crossings under construction– 7 on hold - require ROW by TXDOT– 3 crossing scheduled for 2006