U.S. 290 construction finally to end (mostly) later this...

Frequent travelers of U.S. 290 know two different eras of the freeway: Before Construction and During Construction.

Before miles of construction started in 2011, U.S. 290 was a tied-up mess slowing to a crawl by increased demand. During is six years of freeway closings, lane changes and narrow stretches shared by heavy trucks - along with even more traffic.

"It's been like having a root canal for six years," said Peter Perez, 42, who drives into Uptown every work day from Jersey Village.

Though many thought it would never come, there really is a light at the end of the tunnel, and Texas Department of Transportation officials said they are almost there.

Really.

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Most major construction along the main lanes of U.S. 290 will end in 2018. Every new wide lane open. Every bridge built. Eleven lanes, including a reversible HOV lane, from Loop 610 to Texas 6, and nine lanes from Texas 6 to Waller County. All open by the end of 2018.

"There are going to see stuff open up if we can do it safely," said Frank Leong, area engineer for TxDOT's West Harris County office. "The bridges are controlling the schedule right now."

The last segments to start construction, west of the Grand Parkway, will be the first to open under TxDOT's current plans. Leong said that stretch, the easiest to build because it required the fewest bridges and fewest utility relocations, likely will open in March or April.

About six months later, if schedules proceed as anticipated, the freeway should be fully open from Loop 610 to the Sam Houston Tollway - including the lengthy work to rebuild all the connections to and from Loop 610, Interstate 10 and frontage road entrances and exits.

Officials said work will speed ahead and the project will be in finishing touches phase by the time Houstonians ring in 2019.

"Things are looking very good that we are going to beat that," Leong said, "but we'll stick to the schedule we have now."

The final portions likely will be around FM 1960 and Eldridge, he said, where the bridges and frontage roads will be some of the last built.

After years of exasperation and nerve-wracking and emotionally draining drives down U.S. 290, many commuters were dulled by the news the end is nearing.

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"It's encouraging to see it all come together," said Melanie Gerber, 46. "But until I see it open, I won't celebrate."

Optimism, then delays

Broken into 13 projects, widening the 38 miles of U.S. 290 from Waller County to Loop 610 is the largest ongoing freeway rebuild in the region, and, many drivers say, the most needed. Officials expect the population along the corridor to roughly double from 2010 to 2035 to about 1 million people.

Currently, about 215,000 vehicles travel the freeway east and west of the Sam Houston Tollway each weekday.

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To accelerate construction, TxDOT teamed with the Harris County Toll Road Authority, which offered $400 million for the $1.8 billion project for three managed lanes down the center of the freeway. Officials hailed the deal as a way to deliver needed freeway expansion sooner rather than later.

Then the deal deteriorated as toll officials - chiefly county leaders - and TxDOT could not agree on specifics of how the managed lanes and freeway would interact. To separate the parties, HCTRA agreed to contribute $200 million - half the original offer - and cede control of the Katy Managed Lanes to TxDOT. The state then decided to build only a single, reversible HOV lane and instead have a fifth general use lane in each direction from Loop 610 to Texas 6.

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The revised deal, announced in 2014, still is being finalized, as state and county lawyers devise language to allow the transfer of the I-10 managed lanes to TxDOT control.

Meanwhile, work on the project slowed or stalled for a variety of reasons, notably months-long delays in relocating utilities - often outside the control of state officials and the project's contractors - and heavy rains in 2015 and 2016.

One section of the project, from Pinemont to West Little York, had to be handed over to another builder after the original contractor defaulted on all of its projects in Texas as when the company collapsed.

The various hiccups, major and minor, changed anticipated opening times by months or years. At the end of 2015, TxDOT said work remained on pace to open by the end of 2017. By late 2016, they were predicting everything would finish by the end of 2018.

Out of the mud

Officials are much more confident of openings as they proceed, because they are literally and figuratively on solid ground, with miles of concrete poured and steel rebar laid. Though a lot of dirt remains to be moved, most efforts to finish the job rest on manpower building the lanes and concrete dividers.

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Crews also are close to opening a major component of the Loop 610 interchange, which will reconnect the HOV lane. The work also coincides with openings planned in January for some of the frontage road access.

"This job is going to open up a lot of things next month," said Hamoon Bahrami, project engineer for the U.S. 290 project.

The openings also allow work to concentrate in the center of the interchange, where one of the last steps will be returning the connection from northbound Loop 610 to westbound U.S. 290 to the interior of the interchange. Of the major connections between U.S. 290, Loop 610 and I-10, it is the last piece.

The final few months, however, will not be pain-free. In some spots, crews still are hanging beams for some overpasses, which will lead to highway closings and detours. Lanes will remain narrowed in spots for months to come.

Work at FM 1960, meanwhile, will stretch into 2019, but not on the freeway itself, Leong said.

TxDOT also still is considering a plan to allow off-peak HOV use of the adjacent lane to the reversible lane, traveling the opposite direction.

The proposal, preferred by Metropolitan Transit Authority, would use the innermost lane of westbound U.S. 290 as a transit and carpool lane in the mornings, and then the fast lane of eastbound U.S. 290 in the evenings. The lane would act as a compliment to the reversible HOV lane, but be open to all drivers outside certain peak commuting times.

Leong said the proposal requires TxDOT to hold public hearings as it is a change to the approved plan. The hearings would occur sometime next year, Leong said.

If approved, the change only requires the installation of signs and additional road markings.