The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is collecting feedback until December 9th on the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the I-45 Expansion. The approval of this document is the last hurdle TxDOT needs to clear in order to obtain a Record of Decision to finalize details and begin construction.
Despite unprecedented community input, the FEIS is putting forward a very similar project to what TxDOT first proposed in 2017. The proposal is not only bad for public health, safety, and climate action but also deeply inequitable. The agency hasn’t incorporated Mayor Turner’s community-informed vision nor have they committed to any of the parameters outlined by the Mayor in his letter to TxDOT.
It’s not too late to influence what will happen to this project. There are several actions you can take right now:
1. Send comments to TxDOT on the FEIS by the December 9th deadline (comment deadline extended until Dec. 18th)
Please send TxDOT your comments about the FEIS. It is very important that as many people as possible submit feedback. You can use our pre-drafted email, which focuses on the air quality implications, or draft your own remarks. The City of Houston has published a user guide on their website for how to make effective comments, fact sheets about the project’s impacts, and other useful information. You may also ask the City’s technical team questions or get feedback on your comments before you submit them.
Read here our organization’s letter to TxDOT.
2. Sign a petition to local elected officials
Our elected officials have heard the intense opposition to this project, know our communities deserve better, and they have the power to stand up to TxDOT. It’s time for our representatives to step up and defend their constituents, as highlighted by Stop TxDOT I-45 in this recent op-ed published in the Houston Chronicle.
3. Help lift community voices and highlight what’s at stake
The I-45 expansion will displace 1079 homes, 2 schools, 5 places of worship, and 344 businesses, most of them in communities that have already been historically devastated by highway development. Our partners at LINK Houston and Stop TxDOT I-45 have worked on a story map to give life to data and highlight the consequences of this expansion on communities along the I-45 corridor. Hear from 13 of the tens of thousands of people who will be impacted.