Ramp closure will affect your downtown commute for months

Elissa Rivas Image
Monday, January 28, 2019
Freeway ramp to close permanentlly
Gulf Freeway ramp to close and not reopen for months

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- For the next six months, the I-45 Gulf Freeway ramp to I-69/288 southbound will be closed.

TxDOT shut it down on Friday.

RELATED: Years of road construction plagues Galleria-area

TxDOT will demolish the ramp that thousands of drivers use on a regular basis to navigate downtown, and build a new one.

The current I-69/288 southbound ramp exits to the left from the northbound lanes of the Gulf Freeway, which has long-plagued the interchange with weaving drivers who slow traffic and cause wrecks.

TxDOT says when the new ramp opens in early July, drivers will be able make a decision much farther back to exit to the right.

TxDOT says this should reduce congestion through the area, which includes the University of Houston campus.

During the six-month closure, TxDOT is recommending drivers on that corridor travel north on I-45 through downtown, exit east on I-10, then take I-69 southbound.

See the maps below for more on the detours.

SEE MORE: I-45 is moving around downtown

TxDOT planning to embark on massive remodel of the downtown freeway system.

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