Spur 527, once the path of U.S. 59 into downtown Houston before the freeway moved east, is supposed to carry travelers to and from Midtown and the central business district over a series of street overpasses.

Lately, some of those overpasses are dividing the community more than just physically.

After deteriorating conditions closed the northern access points to the spur — the mile-long connector from Interstate 69 to Elgin — city officials received cheers from cyclists and residents after unveiling a plan to not rebuild the connections to Bagby and Brazos.

Those accolades, however, did not last long as commuters and business owners along the two streets derided the plan, citing traffic woes city that engineers said would not occur.

Eventually Mayor Sylvester Turner said the project lacked consensus and told Houston Public Works to continue its plans to rebuild the overpasses and reconnect the streets to the freeway.

“He has so much on his plate, and just threw up his hands,” said Bill Marshall, president of the Westmoreland Civic Association, which represents neighbors along part of the route. “He had to be King Solomon and he decided to pave over the baby.”

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The proposal and subsequent retreat rankled some cyclists, including Colby Close, 26, who likened it to seeing a Christmas gift wrapped in the shape of a new bike, “and opening it and finding socks.”

“They’re happy to say all the right things, but if three drivers are inconvenienced, it can’t happen,” Close said.

Marshall said residents have not given up hope of changing the city’s mind, but recognize they are fighting an uphill battle with the decision seemingly made.

Glimpse of the possible

City crews closed the bridge last July, after concrete chipped away from the overpass and engineers deemed it unsafe for travel. The closing diverted traffic off the spur to Louisiana and Travis, as officials planned a project to replace it.

With that work started, city officials then considered canceling the overpass in favor of making it a pedestrian and bicycling connection. The intersection of Holman, Hawthorne and Bagby — where the streets come together at the entrance to the spur beneath the overpass — was identified in 2018 as a priority crossing for safety improvements by local cyclists and road safety advocates. City officials listed it among 12 priority safety locations.

“It was accepted as top five on our list,” said Clark Martinson, executive director of local advocacy group BikeHouston, who helped develop the city’s selections for intersections.

Public Works tied some improvements, such as raised crosswalks and signals, to the proposed replacement of the bridge roadway, but the concrete failed earlier than planned. That offered cyclists, who long have sought a safer way through Midtown to Montrose where tight streets and the surge of traffic to Spur 527 poses a hazard, a glimpse of what could be without cars.

“It was glorious, night and day when it comes to feeling safe,” said Jim Mitchell, a Midtown resident who often rides his bike through the area.

The commuter hiatus also gave city engineers a chance to step back and see how they could tackle the tangle of streets, said Jeff Weatherford, deputy director of Houston Public Works over traffic operations.

“The fundamental problem we were trying to solve is the intersection … does not work very well,” Weatherford said of the area south of Elgin, particularly the Holman and Hawthorne crossings of Brazos and Smith. “It doesn’t really work for cars or pedestrians.”

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The three alternatives, presented in February, aimed at doing more with less construction and cutting Bagby and Brazos off from Spur 527. In all cases, the options would have eliminated the connections from Bagby and Brazos and turned the area into a small greenway park with a multi-use trail running from Holman to Elgin, easing bike access and giving a park-starved area of town a small spot.

The space also fit within the city’s long-range bike plan, approved in 2017, which calls for up to $552 million in bike-related improvements to city streets, parks and bayous. The plan, which includes specific routes for bike lanes and trails but does not commit money to the projects, will be built piecemeal along with road improvements and other capital projects.

Brazos Bridge Presentation ... by dugbegley on Scribd

Though a formal traffic study never was prepared, Public Works analyzed traffic counts before and after the Bagby bridge closed and found other connections to the spur, such as Louisiana, Travis, Smith and Milam, could handle the extra traffic if the Bagby-Brazos links were not rebuilt.

Businesses push back

Still, the change would have sent thousands of drivers another direction. Since the bridge closed, volume on Louisiana at the exit from Spur 527 doubled from fewer than 13,000 vehicles daily to more than 27,000. That meant thousands of re-routed trips that businesses along Bagby and Brazos feared would lose them money.

“The strongest argument was coming from business owners,” Weatherford said of the opposition the city received. He said the opponents stretched along both streets from Elgin to Interstate 45 and included apartment rental firms and national and local retailers.

Six business owners or their representatives said they opposed the closing plan or displayed signs opposing it, but declined or ignored requests for comment.

Shoppers and commuters were less shy, saying the push-back was more about bucking special interests.

“I love riding my bike along the trails, but let’s be sensible, Houston is a car town,” said 56-year-old Charles Menninger, who relies on the spur to commute from Bellaire to downtown. “It’s irresponsible to tell thousands of drivers they need to find another way so dozens of cyclists can have a nice path.”

Neighbors who supported the plan are not buying the argument, Marshall said, saying many believe commercial developers in Midtown waged a shadow campaign to drum up supposed opposition.

“Don’t tell me people are coming off the spur and buying a pint of ice cream at Whole Foods and a six pack at Specs, heading to the office and leaving at 5 p.m.,” he said.

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Weatherford said the city will proceed with replacing the bridge, at an estimated cost of $4 million, which could come with some minor improvements to cycling and road safety at the intersections added later. At Holman, Hawthorne and Smith, that could mean re-timing lights to give pedestrians and cyclists a safer crossing.

“The way you improve that is you make it one shot,” he said. “Both streets stop and you continue.”

As for the efforts around Houston to develop more bike access — something Turner said he supports as part of a “paradigm shift” in transportation — Martinson is optimistic. Many of the first round of projects in the city’s bike plan, notably bike lanes along Gray Street and around Texas Southern University are under construction. Work along Bagby to improve pedestrian and cycling access includes better connectivity to Buffalo Bayou trails to and from downtown’s theater district.

“We don’t want to get dragged into a fight over a good idea that lost,” he said of the Bagby brouhaha. “As long as the mayor supports the bike plan, I am happy.”

dug.begley@chron.com