No bike lanes and the removal of a center turn lane — those are the main points of contention among East Houston residents concerned about the upcoming overhaul of Telephone Road.
“Ultimately, the road that we’re about to design hasn’t been best practice for probably 30 to 40 years,” said Ian Hlavacek, an Eastwood resident and traffic engineer. “This is something that municipalities around the country have been working to fix for decades now.”
The section of Telephone Road between Lockwood Drive and Lawndale Street, which is the first segment in the redesign project, is currently a five-lane thoroughfare featuring a center turn lane. Under the new design concept, it will lose the center turn lane while it maintains the other four lanes. Aside from a yellow line, there will be no separation between opposing lanes of traffic.
That’s a change from a previous design concept, which called for a three-lane road with a center turn lane. Plans for two proposed bicycle lanes, separated from cars by a buffer with trees, have also been scrapped.
Community pushback on the changes prompted a delay by the Harrisburg Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ), which controls a portion of property tax revenue in the area and is overseeing the project, as first reported by the Houston Chronicle.
In a statement, Harrisburg TIRZ board chair Bolivar Fraga told Houston Public Media that the project’s main goals are “enhancing drainage, improving roadway surfaces, and improving overall travel safety and comfort — all while adhering to the City of Houston’s guiding mobility principles.” The guiding mobility principles, as enacted by Mayor John Whitmire’s administration, require road projects to maintain the width and number of vehicle lanes.
“Currently, the engineers are updating the design to reflect the city’s updated design standards while continuing to adhere to the project goals,” Fraga said.
Fraga said the TIRZ will host a public meeting “to present the proposed improvements to the community and solicit feedback, with an emphasis on creative ways to improve safety and comfort, while working within the city’s design parameters.” The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Aug. 19 at the KIPP Explore Academy on Lawndale Street.
Justin Doud/Houston Public Media
According to Houston City Council member Joaquin Martinez, who represents the area, he reached a compromise with the Whitmire administration to maintain plans for 8-foot-wide sidewalks.
“It’s something that’s going to make sure kids are safer today, and I really consider that a win,” Martinez said. “When you look at some of the other projects that are moving forward as well — this one has really seen opportunity to see some flexibility from the administration.”
In a statement, Whitmire’s senior planning advisor Marlene Gafrick said the administration needs to “plan for the city’s future mobility needs by considering our long term growth and densification that is associated with redevelopment.”
“The reconstruction of Telephone Road is a big investment in the area,” Gafrick said. “We need to take the time to design a road that will serve the residents and businesses of today and in the future.”
The Telephone Road overhaul is one of many changed projects under Whitmire’s administration, which scrapped plans for cyclist-friendly infrastructure and traffic-calming measures on Antoine Drive in Northwest Houston, Montrose Boulevard and West Alabama Street in Montrose. Under Whitmire, the city has also torn up existing infrastructure, like traffic-calming measures on Houston Avenue near downtown and a protected bike lane in Midtown.
The $12 million Telephone Road project is funded as part of $35 million in bonds, approved by the Houston City Council last year. The updates to the design will take nearly a year to complete, starting toward the end of 2025, and they will add nearly half a million dollars to the cost. The full project runs from Lawndale Drive to Loop 610.
Multiple residents of the Eastwood neighborhood, which contains the Lawndale-Lockwood segment, voiced opposition to the changes, including Amy Erickson.
“We’re spending money to make the street less safe, which is the total opposite of what the intention of the redevelopment authority was — to make it more safe,” Erickson said.
In 2023 and 2024, there were at least seven crashes at the intersection of Lockwood and Telephone Road, including one possible injury, along with 18 crashes along the stretch between Lockwood Drive and Lawndale Street, according to the Texas Department of Transportation’s Crash Records Information System.
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