Texas is set to spend more than a decade moving some of its interstate highways

Texas is about to do something most cities wouldn’t even dream of – it’s literally moving its Houston highways.

The North Houston Highway Improvement Project will take apart I-45, rebuild big stretches of I-10 and I-69, and put them back together in new places.

It’s going to take more than 10 years and cost billions, all while traffic keeps flowing.

When it’s finished, Houston’s main roads won’t just look different – they’ll actually be different.

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Moving Houston highways will be a massive project

Think of Houston’s highway system like an old game of Tetris. 

The pieces went together in the 1950s and 60s when there were fewer people and fewer cars. 

Now, the city’s doubled in size, and the board is jammed. 

The new plan? 

Pick up the whole thing and rebuild it to be bigger and better.

I-45, the highway that runs straight through the city, will move from the west side of downtown to the east. 

It’ll run alongside I-10 and I-69, which are both getting upgrades too. 

I-10’s adding four express lanes for faster traffic, and all the major roads will get proper shoulders, smoother curves, and sidewalks and bike paths for the first time.

Flooding – one of Houston’s biggest headaches – is also on the fix list. 

Engineers are building new drainage systems into the project instead of waiting for the next big storm to test them. 

And thanks to a deal with federal highway officials, the rebuild also promises more parks, better air quality, and less impact on neighborhoods along the route.

It’s not just construction, it’s like open-heart surgery on a living city. 

Everything keeps moving while the arteries are being rebuilt.

How Houston plans to pull it off

The NHHIP isn’t one big job, it’s dozens of smaller ones stacked like dominoes. 

The first phase kicked off in 2024 with the St. Emanuel Drainage Project, digging trenches and flood channels that’ll run through 2027. 

Boring work, maybe, but it’s what keeps the fancy stuff from sinking later.

Next comes the rebuild of the I-69 main lanes between SH-288 and I-45. 

That started in early 2025 and runs all the way to 2033. 

Once that backbone is finished, the city can finally shift I-45 into its new corridor, complete with the bike paths and green space promised years earlier.

It’s slow, messy, and full of orange cones, but the plan makes sense. 

Houston’s taking apart its highways one section at a time so it can put them back together stronger, safer, and smarter.

A decade from now, when the dust settles, drivers will still be on I-45.

It’ll just be in a new place.

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