travelling I-10 East thru Houston at rush hour

[robc]

I am driving from Austin to Lafayette this Friday and will hit Houston about 4:00pm. What is best way to get thru Houston? I was planning on cutting down from I-10 to the Westpark Tollway, connecting to the Sam Houston Tollway south around Hoston to I-10 East. Would this work or does someone have a better idea? Thanks.

Rob

 

[Murphy'sBoy]

I've done that and it works OK. The best thing to do is to try to get there at 3:45 and just shoot right through on I-10

 

[SabreHorn]

I live in Houston & go to Beaumont weekly.

The Toll Road is worse than I-10. If you hit I-10 downtown before 4:45 you should be OK.

Other problems, however:

There is no short way around the San Jacinto River Bridge on I-10. It goes fro 3 lanes to 2 and backs up all day, but if you are there by 4:30, it should be less than a five minute delay.

I-1o between Beaumont and Orange has lots of construction and will likely be feeder road or one lane. Check the Beaumont Enterprise website for info. If it's blocked, take 73 in Winnie through Port Arthur into Bridge City and 62 acroos to I-10. It could save you as much as an hour.

East of Lake Charles (be sure to take the Loop around Lake Charles) at Iowa, there has been construction closing I-10 to one lane.

I'm going through there Tuesday & Thursday & will try to give you better info then.

 

[robc]

Thanks for the up to date info Sabre. The part of I-10 that always seems to kill me is the section from Katy to the 610 W. Loop. This has been under construction forever and when you hit it in the afternoon the HOVs are always coming against you.

 

[HoustonHorn]

I'd stay on I-10. It isn't going to be bad heading into town because the construction is done on the west side to 610. Most of the traffic is going to be heading away from downtown. The east side isn't as populated as the west side of town, so traffic heading east out of Houston shouldn't be terrible. i definitely suggest trying to get to Houston just before 4:00 to miss most of the traffic.

 

[SabreHorn]

robc,

The Katy construction is finished and there are now HOV lanes on both sides of the freeway. You should be 60-70 mph down to Shepherd. From Shepherd to I-45 is bumper to bumper, but from there to Magnolia is pretty open.

 

[HoustonHorn]

Also, there are HOV's going both ways full-time, I believe. Although they are called Managed Lanes, so there may be some restrictions.

Managed Lanes

 

[HornOnTheBayou]

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