Neal Ēhardt

ALT Federal Highway Administration Delivers Weak Voluntary Agreement with TxDOT Agreement holds no guarantees for displaced community members and reneges on Biden Administration’s commitment to transformational racial justice in transportation. HOUSTON– On Tuesday, March 7, 2023, the Federal Highway Administration announced that it had reached a voluntary agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation on the North Houston Highway Improvement Project (NHHIP), commonly known as the I-45 Expansion. President Joe Biden and US Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg promised to undo the past harms caused by freeway construction, but it seems they are doomed to repeat these harms in Houston.

ALT Throughout the agreement and in meetings, the FHWA emphasized that they will closely monitor the expansion, and will enforce a stronger Title VI ruling in the event that TxDOT breaks the agreement. We know from experience that TxDOT does not operate in good faith: they continue to manipulate data and use disproven population and traffic models, they strong-armed the city with the Lofts at the Ballpark demolition, and they manufactured public consent with their exclusionary survey. To expect new outcomes from their current methods is waiting for harm to occur again. Harm monitored is still harm done. We will continue to support the minimal community engagement efforts required by this voluntary agreement, but community engagement without enforced follow-through is effectively meaningless. We will study the details of the agreement with Air Alliance Houston and LINK Houston, and will continue to be a responsive and reliable source of information for the public – especially the directly

ALT “I am disappointed by the Federal Highway Administration’s voluntary agreement with TxDOT. They are doing what federal agencies do, using the term enforcement when historically we have seen no follow through. Trust has been broken for generations, and by signing off on the choices of the state, only enforcing after harm has been done, they continue a painful legacy. So far, I see no tangible changes that don’t rely on TxDOT’s good faith participation. The first place the I-45 freeway will be expanded is on the east side of downtown, routing thousands of vehicles within yards of an elementary school! That means a new, highly vulnerable generation will suffer the effects of air pollution and harm, after generations before were sliced and divided first by I-10 running east/west and I-59 north/south... now I-45 running north. The harm continues.” - Joetta Stevenson, Super Neighborhood 55 President & Title VI Complainant “We are again ignored in the same manner that we were ignored since