Stop TxDOT I-45

Stop TxDOT I-45 organized in response to TxDOT’s North Houston Highway Improvement Project, which proposes to reroute Interstate 45 around the east side of downtown Houston and widen the corridor to as many as 28 lanes at points. The project’s 2017 Draft Environmental Impact Statement estimated displacement of approximately 1,067 residential units, 344 businesses, five houses of worship, and two schools across the full corridor, with the Second Ward, Fifth Ward, and Independence Heights carrying the heaviest burdens.

The coalition brought together Second Ward and Fifth Ward residents, environmental justice advocates, transportation planners, and faith institutions to contest the project on civil-rights and environmental grounds. Stop TxDOT I-45 organized public comment campaigns, legislative testimony, and direct-action events targeting TxDOT’s administrative process. The coalition framed the NHHIP as the third or fourth chapter of a pattern that began when the Gulf Freeway took Second Ward blocks in 1948, presenting the project not as a new proposal but as a continuation of racially stratified highway planning.

In 2021, Harris County and Air Alliance Houston filed a joint Title VI administrative complaint with the Federal Highway Administration that cited the coalition’s documentation. FHWA paused further NHHIP approvals, the first federal halt of a major Texas highway on civil-rights grounds at the construction stage. After FHWA lifted the pause in 2023 following a voluntary agreement the coalition characterized as non-binding, Stop TxDOT I-45 has continued to press for binding mitigation and route modifications.