Houston Transportation

As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I am committed to securing funding for critical Houston area transportation projects that reduce congestion and travel time.

290 Corridor

In the past 25 years, the US 290 Corridor has experienced considerable growth. Population has increased by 57% and road usage has skyrocketed by 95%.  State road capacity, however, only grew by 8%. Over the next 25 years, the population in the corridor is expected to increase by an additional 64% and road usage is expected to increase 214%.  The chronically congested 290 Corridor is facing serious problems.

Given these staggering numbers, today I am requesting $267 million for the US 290 Corridor to relieve congestion and improve the quality of life for Texans. With $227 million designated for the US 290 Corridor Expansion Project and $40 million for the Hempstead Commuter Rail, Texans can look forward to more time at home with their families and less time on the road.

In addition to reduced travel time, these funds will create over 50,000 jobs, attract new businesses to Houston, ensure that the air we breath is cleaner, and expand a vital hurricane evacuation route.

Members of the Houston Community agree this request is an absolute necessity:

• Ed Emmett - Harris County Judge: “Commuter rail is a necessary part of solving the congestion problems in the 290/Hempstead corridor. I appreciate Congressman Culberson’s leadership in addressing this priority for Harris County residents.”

• Reginald Lillie - Chairman of the Board of Directors, Cy-Fair Chamber of Commerce: “I want to offer my very strong support for Congressman Culberson’s request in the highway reauthorization bill for $267 million for the reconstruction of Hwy 290 and the $ 40 million for commuter rail along Hwy 290 also. These two projects are critically important to the mobility and economic development of Cy-Fair/ NW Houston, Waller and Prairie View communities. This is proof of his commitment and willingness to use every means within his Congressional capacity to bring relief of a major mobility burden and the possibility of expanded economic development to the residents and businesses of these communities.”   

• Barbara Thomason – President, Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce: “This is an extremely important corridor for northwest Harris County and one that has grown increasingly glutted in recent years from traffic resulting from the sheer growth of neighborhoods and business expansions.  Without the influx of funding that could bring commuter rail and highway improvements to this corridor, we will quickly see the deterioration of this corridor. We see this as a critical, narrow window of time in which to act. We must be as proactive as possible so that our sprawling communities can have the infrastructure they need to maintain their economic health.”

To learn more about 290 Corridor Expansion Project, please click here.

The Katy Freeway

My first promise to you in 2001 when I was sworn in as your new Congressman was to do whatever it took to get the Katy Freeway rebuilt as fast as humanly possible. In January 2001, the project was short more than $500 million, and we were told it would be finished as late as 2016. That situation was unacceptable, so I found a federal law that allowed the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to partner with the Harris County Toll Road Authority to expand the freeway. Former County Judge Robert Eckels and I helped persuade TxDOT and state and local officials to join us in presenting this unique partnership to the Federal Highway Administration.

• No one else in America is building a freeway as quickly or as efficiently as we are in west Houston. Not only will this one of a kind use of locally operated toll lanes on an Interstate freeway cut our construction time in half, but the infusion of Harris County Toll Road Authority dollars up front has allowed the freeway to be expanded without any additional federal highway dollars.
  
  
• Since the project relies on local toll revenues, I did not have to request one dime of additional federal money to pay for it. As a dedicated fiscal conservative, I can proudly report that I have kept my first promise to you by getting federal approval to rebuild the Katy Freeway in record time.
  
  
• According to TxDOT, without the $500 million in additional funding from the Harris County Toll Road Authority that I helped provide, other Houston transportation projects would have been delayed and the I-10 expansion would have been spread out over a longer period of time.
  
  
• Our federal gas tax dollars are stretched thin and often used for wasteful projects. To help communities throughout the country, I am pushing to make the innovative Katy Freeway expansion a national model.

To learn more about the Katy Freeway project, visit www.katyfreeway.org.

METRO Rail

• As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I have secured $32 million for engineering on Metro’s north and southeast rail lines, and $7 million for its bus service since 2005.
  
  
• I helped Metro get reimbursed for 50% of the construction of the Main Street Line by putting language in the transportation bill requiring FTA to reimburse Metro for half of the $340 million cost.
  
  
• 97 percent of the home, business, and property owners on Richmond Avenue who contacted my office oppose a rail line on their street.
  
  
• The 2003 ballot resolution specifically referred to rail on Westpark and not on Richmond. Metro provided its board members with a detailed Key Map of the entire Metro Solutions rail system in July 2003. This map clearly shows the proposed rail line extending southwest from the existing Main Street Line along State Highway 59 to Westpark and ending at the Hillcroft Transit Center.
  
  
• Metro promised the 2003 rail ballot resolution "will be binding on Metro and will constitute [a] contract with the voters…and may not be repealed, altered or rescinded by any succeeding Board without voter approval at a subsequent election."
  
  
• Metro studied and rejected the idea of rail on Richmond in 2003 because of the difficulty of building rail down the middle of a major thoroughfare.
  
  
• I am working with Metro on a line that complies with the ballot language and protects local neighborhoods. This line would run within the Southwest Freeway right-of-way to Westpark, without taking a lane of traffic or homes along either side of the freeway.

Additional Houston Transportation Projects

• I obtained $12 million for a system of projects to improve mobility in and around the Texas Medical Center, which handles 150,000 people every day. One of these projects involves the construction of a “trauma access corridor” from the interchange of IH610 and SH288 directly into the Medical Center.
  
  
• I helped the City of Houston receive money for a program to synchronize traffic lights, which will help improve the flow of traffic.
  
  
• I secured funds to build a Park Row bypass from Highway 6 to Eldridge Parkway that will serve as a reliever route for Interstate 10.
  
  

To learn more about the proposed construction along US 290, click here.

PRESS RELEASES
The Case for Commuter Rail, 12/17/07
Good News on Completing the Katy Freeway and Securing Our Border, 11/29/07
METRO Thanks Congressional Delegation for Support, 7/31/07
METRO Must Keep Its Word, 1/29/07
Culberson Letter to METRO Chairman David Wolff, 8/3/06

SPONSORED / COSPONSORED LEGISLATION
H.Res. 286 - Expressing that the House of Representatives supports the goals and ideals of the 1940 Air Terminal Museum and requests the President issue a proclamation recognizing the 1940 Air Terminal Museum as the "National Museum of Civil Aviation"
H.Res. 691 - Commending the Wings Over Houston Airshow for its great contribution to the appreciation, understanding, and future of the United States Armed Forces, the City of Houston, Texas, and Ellington Field
H.R. 1125 - Freedom to Fly Act of 2007
H.R. 1756 - NAFTA Trucking Safety Act of 2007

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS

Channel 2 Investigative Report on METRO, 5/14/07
Here is a link to a KPRC Channel 2 investigative report which aired on the 5 o’clock news Monday evening. The report covers some of the inaccuracies in Houston METRO’s federal formula funding projections that I discovered before the 2003 rail referendum. This formula funding is set by the Federal Transit Administration, not by Congress, and is based on the number of people who use transit in the Houston area. Despite my concerns about METRO’s financial status, I have followed through on my commitment to work with METRO and to ensure that they get everything they are entitled to under the law, and METRO continues to be my top appropriations request in terms of overall dollars.