Bay Area Edition | February 2024

BY RACHEL LELAND

The specics

Going forward

Project: Widened Hwy. 146 from 6 to 12 lanes Timeline: 2019-2024

RED BLUFF RD.

In February 2019, TxDOT began widening Hwy. 146 from Red Bluff Road in Seabrook to where it meets Hwy. 96, just south of Kemah. The $214 million project sought to widen the highway from six to 12 lanes and add an express- way bridge. The remaining portion of the project, which includes building frontage roads, sidewalks and trac signals, won’t be fully completed until spring, TxDOT Public Information Ocer Bambi Hall said. The project was originally slated for completion before December, but was stalled by weather delays and material constraints. A further delay was announce on Feb. 21. In 2023, TxDOT started widening another 5.5-mile section of Hwy. 146 south of Seabrook and Kemah that runs between FM 518 and Dickinson Bayou.

While the widening has been tough on businesses in the area, ocials think the project could help with future plans. City documents from Seabrook show plans to develop along the newly updated corridor—something 86% of respondents in a 2022 survey said they wanted to see more of. The Edge, for example, will add more than 300 living units, and 19,000 square feet of mixed-use space, according to city documents. “We’re going into a new era for Seabrook, and we’re looking forward to developing the corridor in ways we couldn’t before the expansion,” Cook said. Meanwhile, the Kemah Community Development Corporation is working on a Rediscover Kemah campaign to help act as an economic stimulus using local events, Saldaña said. “Despite all the issues we’re having, Kemah’s coming back,” Saldaña said.

Seabrook

GALVESTON BAY

A R I N A B A Y D R .

Project: Widening Hwy. 146 from 4 to 6 lanes

Kemah

Timeline: 2023-TBD

146

DICKINSON BAY

517

DICKINSON BAYOU

SOURCE: TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATIONCOMMUNITY IMPACT

A closer look

Hwy. 146 trac volume

Trac congestion and keeping Hwy. 146 as an eective hurricane evacuation route were reasons for the project, according to a 2018 study by the Houston-Galveston Area Council. A 2005 TxDOT trac count showed the annual average daily trac on Hwy. 146 in the project’s vicinity could increase by 56% from 2005 to 2035— from 40,900 vehicles per day to 63,700. While trac is expected to rebound in the coming years, the project itself has spurred a downtick in trac of about 20% for both Kemah and Seabrook along the highway’s frontage roads, according to TxDOT data from 2018 and 2022.

Seabrook

Kemah

20K 30K 40K 50K

41,926

30,227

40,231

29,105

Construction begins

10K 0

The Edge at Seabrook Town Centre is expected to break ground in 2024.

COURTESY HS DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

NOTE: TXDOT DATA FOR 2023 IS NOT AVAILABLE. SOURCE: TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATIONCOMMUNITY IMPACT

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