Houston shirt maker wishes that they would 'Finish 290' already It might be one of the most universal sentiments in the city

PHOTOS: Great moments in U.S. 290 construction history





Click through to see what Houston commuters deal with on a daily basis... Houston T-shirt designer Gustavo Gonzalez with Gooseworks recently unveiled a shirt to help Houstonians deal with their most-hated highway. less PHOTOS: Great moments in U.S. 290 construction history





Click through Houston T-shirt designer Gustavo Gonzalez with Gooseworks recently unveiled a shirt to help Houstonians deal with their most-hated highway. ... more Photo: Gooseworks Photo: Gooseworks Image 1 of / 53 Caption Close Houston shirt maker wishes that they would 'Finish 290' already 1 / 53 Back to Gallery

Anyone who deals with the eternally-clogged U.S. 290 on a daily or weekly basis always has a few special expletives to throw its way.

Recently a Houston T-shirt maker designed a shirt to help locals express their frustrations.

STREET ART: Aggravation with U.S. 290 construction boils over into graffiti

Gustavo Gonzalez with Gooseworks has made Houston-centric shirts for the past six years and he's best-known for his takes on the Enron logo, the official city seal and local band merch.

His newest creation is a simple shirt with the slogan "Finish 290" on it. Its currently available for purchase at the Space Montrose boutique off Westheimer. He was inspired after graffiti popped up at the end of 2016 along the roadway expressing the same sentiment in black spray paint.

What does he hate the most about U.S. 290?

"When you're driving up 610 North and you get on the 290 West ramp, there's a moment of uncertainty where you can't tell how backed up it is. You start to think, maybe just this one time, you won't have to waste 45 extra minutes of your day sitting there bumper to bumper," he said.

HECK NO: Things you don't want to see while driving in Houston

"You drive a little farther up the ramp and you get a little more excited. You start to think it'll only be 10 minutes this time, but then, you make it to the top of the ramp where the view finally clears, and you realize the nightmare is still there."

The way that U.S. 290 tricks you into almost being OK with it is universal. Just when you think you've escaped traffic hell...

"That disappointment, right there, is what I hate the most," Gonzalez said.

Stay tuned for Gonzalez's next shirt, dedicated to crawfish eating.

Anyone who has been driving the infamously congested highway for the past five years while upgrades have been underway would likely want to add more colorful language to Gonzalez's 290 shirt.

PLATE WORK: '290 SUX' license plate fights the power

The construction on U.S. 290 has reached almost terrible icon status in town, right up there with humidity, non-existent winters, expensive quarterbacks and nagging mosquitoes.

Construction began on the Highway 290 Project in June of 2011 with the 610 and U.S. 290 interchange and has extended to 13 program projects along the 38-mile stretch from the 610 Loop to the Harris/Waller County Line.

Eventually, U.S. 290 will be at least five lanes in each direction with a single reversible high occupancy toll lane from Loop 610 to Texas 6. West of Texas 6, the freeway will be four lanes in each direction with the solo high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane.

Additionally, installation of Next Generation Concrete Surface "quiet pavement" is being applied to all U.S. 290 projects. This noise mitigation technique places longitudinal grooves in the concrete pavement, which minimizes the amount of tire/pavement noise.

OK THEN: U.S. 290 expected to be complete by 2018

The whole project will eventually end up costing nearly $5 billion.

Unfortunately, Texas Department of Transportation officials said late last year that most of the work segments will be completed sometime in 2018. Earlier, they hoped it could be finished in 2017.

But until then, we wait in traffic.

The roots of U.S. 290 began almost 175 years ago when, according to Texas history books, the Houston and Austin Turnpike Company was chartered by the Congress of the Republic of Texas to lay out a road from Austin to Houston. Over time as technology advanced and the automobile came into prominence the road began to take the shape they we know today.

It's a very real possibility that some of our Texas ancestors were cursing that very rugged, rutted path at the turn of the century.