$6 billion highway plan has Houston's I-45 congestion in cross hairs
Texas transportation officials have unveiled a bold plan to reconfigure a major interstate through downtown Houston that would place lanes below ground level, alleviate congestion and give the city a dramatic face lift.
The Texas Department of Transportation estimates the cost to expand and realign Interstate 45 at more than $6 billion, a price that would include changes to Interstates 10 and 69. A portion of I-45 near Minute Maid Park, where the Houston Astros play, would be “depressed,” allowing for the possibility that a large public park or some other green space could later be built on top of it.
The project must be vetted by several state and federal agencies before any work can begin, which could be at least five years away.
Houston motorists have long bemoaned interstates with too few lanes, pitches and curves that slow drivers and stymie traffic flow, and narrow configurations that can make drivers feel like canned sardines.
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20150423-6-billion-highway-plan-has-houston-s-i-45-congestion-in-cross-hairs.ece
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I'm about 65' above sea level, while places closer to the bayous sit in the immediate floodplains of those waterways. The Heights area is about the same at 59'.
The worst flooding we've had was back in 2001 when Tropical Storm Allison wandered around on top of us and flooded the bayous. When they spilled over their banks, only then did people's homes and businesses go underwater. Downtown Houston was underwater due to so many of the bayous emptying into that area, including the largest, Buffalo Bayou. White Oak Bayou flooded the submerged section of I-10 when it spilled over its banks.
Also, those sections of Houston where the freeways are below grade are that way due to the neighborhoods around them. Building elevated overpasses was not feasible, nor were underpasses at the time. Now, they could do the latter with advanced tunneling technology. A tunnel-boring machine was used to complete sections of the Westpark Tollway to get under the 610/59 interchange, and 59-W where it turns due SW.
Since then, the county and city have done a great job on flood control by building huge retainment ponds along the banks of the bayous as well as around neighborhoods. Their street runoff goes into those ponds first, and only when full do they then spill into the bayous. What doesn't overflow remains in the ponds until it eventually evaporates.
The only drawback I can see to the ponds is of them being large-scale mosquito incubators 
I'm still trying to figure out the proposed changes, per cloudbase's image below. I finally determined it was looking south, but still haven't figured out their contention that only "part" of the Pierce Elevated will be removed. If you look at a map of downtown Houston, the part depicted in their layout would eliminate the elevated section entirely (I-45 on the west side of downtown), merge 45 with 59/69 to the SE of downtown, and then split it off to merge again with I-10 as already exists to the NW.
While getting rid of the Pierce Elevated section is a good idea with regards to congestion, they're going to have to install signage everywhere! We already have good advanced warning for exits and interchanges, but this is going to be a nightmare. People will need self-driving vehicles just to go straight through 
Looks like it was designed on a cocktail napkin during happy hour.
since they poured the first concrete in 1946. Freeway construction in Houston is one of its "features"
