713-627-3200
On This Page
Who is Completing the Application?
Please provide contact information for the person who will complete the online application for this project. The email address and password entered here will be used to complete and submit both Pre-Applications and Applications.
Geoff Carleton
Principal
713-884-9055
Primary Agency Information
Please provide contact information for the agency official who is representing the project sponsor. This individual will be considered the official applicant and must be authorized by their agency to submit this request for funding and make necessary assertations and representations on the agency’s behalf.
Greater East End Management District
Patrick Ezzell
Managing Director of Economic Development and Infrastructure
713-928-9916
3211 Harrisburg Boulevard
Houston
TX
77003
Additional Agency Information
Project Information
East End District - Pedestrian Transit Access Project
Harris County
Multiple
Eastwood Street – from Canal Street to Garrow Street; Garrow Street – from Eastwood Street to Super Street; Super Street – from Harrisburg Boulevard to Garrow Street; Canal Street – from Lockwood Drive to N Hagerman Street; Texas Street – from Dumble Street/Adams Street to Clifton Street; Texas Street – from Velasco Street to Milby Street; Eastwood Street – from Mckinney Street to Canal Street; Sampson Street – from Harrisburg Street to Lamar Street; Scott Street – from Lamar Street to Dallas Avenue; York Street – from Harrisburg Street to Texas Street; York Street – from Dallas Avenue to Polk Street; Capitol Street – from Sampson Street to York Street; Rusk Street – from Sampson Street to York Street; McKinney Street – from Sampson Street to York Street; Lamar Street – from Sampson Street to York Street; Polk Street – from Roberts Street to Milby Street; Leeland Street – from Sampson Street to Milby Street; Navigation Boulevard – from St. Charles Street to Delano Street
Within the East End District, recent investments in transit, walking, biking, and corridor enhancements have initiated a transformation in mobility that aims to make the East End Houston’s most walkable neighborhood. However, there are still significant gaps in the sidewalk network and portions of corridors that need repair to be ADA compliant. This project will develop significant pedestrian enhancements along multiple street segments that will provide safe, convenient, and accessible connections to transit and other destinations within the East End District. Safety is a primary factor in the desire to implement this project. Along these corridors, between 2015 and 2017, there have been 168 total crashes. It is important that these key corridors that are used for multiple modes of travel have safe sidewalks that connect to transit and local destinations. Corridors with connected, high-quality sidewalk facilities will increase safety and predictability for all modes by providing clearly delineated space for people walking and driving and improved visibility for pedestrians. Within the East End, there is a sizable population of people who utilize or rely on transit services to access jobs, schools, services, and more. The proposed sidewalks will provide access to major METRO bus and light rail services such as the 20 – Canal/Memorial, the 80 – MLK/Lockwood, and the 29 – Cullen/Hirsch. The project will also provide connectivity to four METRORail stations (Leeland/Third Ward, Coffee Plant/Second Ward, Lockwood/Eastwood, and Altic/Howard Hughes stations), along the Green and Purple Lines. These stations provide connections to destinations with significant jobs, services, and education including Downtown Houston, the Galleria, the Texas Medical Center, and the University of Houston. Additionally, within the project area, there are multiple destinations that the community will be able to more easily access, such as Workforce Solutions, Ripley House Charter School, Eastwood Community Center, Lantrip Elementary, HCC Southeast Campus, and a wide variety of retail and services. This project will facilitate safe walking conditions for populations that need and have an existing propensity to use multi-modal transportation opportunities. Within the East End District, the project area has a significant number of people who are minority (83.4%), low income (45.4%), have no vehicles (12.3%), have disabilities (13.6%), or meet other requirements of Environmental Justice populations. The table in attachment X illustrates the composition of the community along with transit and walk mode share, for the immediate project area and the East End District for reference as it compares with Harris County numbers. This community also utilizes transit and walking for commute modes at high rates (5.6% and 3.0% respectively) compared to Harris County (2.8% and 1.5% respectively).
These projects expand upon and support the network of recently completed sidewalk enhancements as well as recently funded (to be constructed) projects that are taking place in strategic locations throughout the East End, supporting EED’s aspiration to be the most walkable neighborhood in Houston. These proposed walkability improvements have been identified as priority locations for improved multi-modal access and providing direct access to key transit services as well as a regional trail connectivity. Additionally, the proposed sidewalk improvement projects requested in this application build upon other funding leveraged through grants and local funds that support the Livable Centers and other plans completed by EED, ultimately supporting the community’s aspiration to be the most walkable neighborhood in Houston. This project consists of approximately 3 corridor miles of sidewalks (6 total miles for sidewalks on both sides of the street) and pedestrian enhancements within the East End District. The project also includes a key safety enhancement along Navigation Boulevard to construct raised crosswalks at four existing HAWK signal locations providing safe crossings along St. Charles Street and Delano Street. Sidewalks will be constructed to be a minimum of 5 feet wide with ADA curb ramps at intersections. Sidewalks and pedestrian enhancements will be constructed to the high quality of recently-completed sidewalks within the community with elements that contribute to and enhance the sense of place with the surrounding neighborhoods and community’s history. Project elements and enhancements include: • Concrete sidewalks, • ADA ramps, • Using concrete pavers to increase crossing visibility and sense of place, • Trees and pedestrian-scale lighting for safety and pedestrian comfort, • Raised crosswalks at key locations for safety enhancement, and • Cast stone nameplates and medallions for wayfinding and sense of place. The East End District has undertaken a series of studies to fully document and analyze pedestrian and transit needs in the study area. These studies include the 2009 Livable Centers Plan, the 2009 Pedestrian and Transit Plan, the 2011 East End Livable Centers Master Plan, the 2012 East End Mobility Study, and the 2015 Fifth Ward/Buffalo Bayou/East End Livable Centers Plan. These studies collected data related to the quality of pedestrian and transit infrastructure and made recommendations for increasing transit and walking mode shares. They also included extensive public feedback as an important input in forming visions, goals, and recommendations. Public feedback for all studies indicated strong community support for improvements to infrastructure for walking, biking and transit trips.
The proposed project will achieve the following primary outcomes: • Provide connections to local and regional destinations, • Support transit investments and increase transit use, • Improve community and environmental health, and • Enhance safety. Safe, comfortable sidewalks and intersection crossings encourage people to walk to local destinations and transit stops. For households within the East End District who do not own a vehicle, seniors, children, and the disabled, sidewalks provide transportation options and access to key community destinations, such as schools, services, jobs, and retail. The proposed sidewalks will connect the community to local and regional transit service, increase ridership, and improve transit productivity. Significant transit investments and transit coverage in the East End District provide a high degree of connectivity to destinations within the East End as well as the region. This connectivity is key for access to jobs, education, services, and more for the community. This project will improve the “first/last mile” connections that are between the transit stop and the transit rider’s destination, which may be a job, school or home. When transit users with special needs cannot reach a fixed-route transit stop, perhaps because there is no sidewalk to safely travel, or because the absence of curb ramps makes travel by wheelchair impossible, they must either forgo the trip entirely, losing out on wages or medical care, or they must utilize more-expensive paratransit options. Enabling safe access to fixed route bus and rail systems would ensure that persons with special needs can move about with marginal incremental costs to the transit system. Equally important, access to transit can increase the independence of persons, who instead of calling in ahead of time to schedule paratransit service can simply traverse the sidewalk to catch the next bus. Community and environmental health are impacted by neighborhoods with high-quality connections to transit service. As more people walk to destinations and to access transit, risk of diseases and poor health outcomes decrease. Additionally, with fewer vehicles on the roadways and more people utilizing transit, emissions reduction is realized, and air quality is improved. Better air quality has additional health benefits, particularly for children and the elderly within the community. This project will enhance safety by creating new pedestrian facilities and reducing hazards such as overgrown grass, obstructed or non-existent sidewalks, and other barriers. In the East End, it is not uncommon to witness people in wheelchairs traveling in the streets because of inconsistent sidewalk accessibility. This situation can be hazardous to both the individual in the wheelchair as well as to drivers. Creating accessible paths away from bus stops alleviates this dangerous situation. These improvements will extend to the general public as well.
No
No
Less than $100 million
Active Transportation
3038335.38
Project Development/Readiness
Not Started
Categorical Exclusion (CE)
07/01/2020
C-List
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
EED_PedTransitAccess_Timeline.pdf
The EED has recently invested over $2.5 million in reserve capital funds and successfully leveraged those dollars into approximately $30 million in sidewalks, transit connections, parks and hike-bike trails, helping to develop the East End into a sustainable, transit-oriented walkable and mixed use urban neighborhood. The EED has extensive experience in developing these types of projects and a successful history of completing them quickly and within budget. The EED has a long history of successful implementation of infrastructure projects ranging in scale from small neighborhood improvements to multimillion dollar corridor enhancements. The staff members have experience in project management and will be responsible for ongoing monitoring of the project design and construction from start to finish. Regular meetings will be scheduled with the project contractors to ensure compliance with the schedule and applicable regulatory standards. These meetings will ensure that any construction obstacles can be quickly addressed. Additionally, EED staff will routinely conduct on-site inspections of the construction work. If issues are discovered, a documented plan of action will be developed to address or correct the situation. The EED will remain in close contact with all stakeholders during project design and construction. These stakeholders include METRO, City of Houston Public Works and Planning Departments, and adjacent businesses, schools, and homeowners. The EED will be responsive to feedback from these stakeholders and will be prepared to modify design features and locations to accommodate desires and address concerns where possible.
Map/Location
Benefit/Cost Analysis
Inputs to the BCA templates were based H-GAC provided corridor volumes and capacities for each of the roadway segments within the direct project area. Corridor volumes and capacities were summed together for all sections to identify a cumulative number to utilize in the calculations. Estimated new users were identified based on a best practice utilized from PedBikeInfo.org. PedBikeInfo methodology for estimation of new users for walking and biking trails has been utilized in multiple Cost Benefit Analyses for federal TIGER grant applications. The methodology utilizes the census reported mode share for the applicable mode (in this case transit and walking) and applies a 25% calculation to that number to identify the number of estimated new users. The number of people within the project area who currently walk or use transit for commuting purposes is 856 daily. This provides the new user estimation for this project at 214 per day across the project area. Counting only the commute mode share is traditionally seen as undercounting the actual number of people who walk or bike because many of these shorter trips that people take are not for work purposes. As such, 856 was utilized as a conservative number to base the estimated users on. The one-way average trip length was utilized from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey for vehicle trips (9.55 miles). As the intent of this project is to provide high quality access to transit, the trips that will be taken due to this project will be more than just active transportation trips. They will consist largely of transit trips to destinations and activity centers throughout Houston to facilitate access to jobs, education, medical, and other trip purposes. Data shows that safe and comfortable access to transit, particularly frequent service, directly increases transit ridership.
Planning Factors - Barrier Elimination (Active Transportation)
Yes
Yes
Planning Factors - Emissions Reductions
794.6 tons/year (based on 0.1975 kg/day from BCA calculation sheet)
16.3 tons/year (based on 0.0447 kg/day from BCA calculation sheet)
Planning Factors - Environmental Justice
Yes
Yes
Planning Factors - Expands or Improves Bicycle & Pedestrian Connectivity to Employment/Schools/Medical Facilities/Transit Stops/Other Points of Interest
Yes
901 - 1000
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Planning Factors - Planning Coordination
Yes
2009 Livable Centers Plan, the 2009 Pedestrian and Transit Plan, the 2012 East End Mobility Study, and the 2015 Fifth Ward/Buffalo Bayou/ East End Livable Centers Plan
http://videos.h-gac.com/ce/livablecenters/east_end_livable_ centers_study.pdf https://www.h-gac.com/community/ livablecenters/planning-studies/fifth-ward-buffalo-bayou-eastend. aspx https://www.houstontx.gov/council/committees/ tti/20121009/eastendmobilitystudy.pdf