The Next Big Dig?

A Houston transportation engineer envisions an ambitious plan for ten miles of underground highway.

1 minute read

June 24, 2005, 1:00 PM PDT

By David Gest


Gonzalo Camacho, a 41-year-old transportation engineer in Houston, thinks he can bury the problems of I-45 once and for all -– literally. "Sinking a portion of I-45 into a tunnel eliminates the need for more right-of-way, the primary fear of frontline homeowners. A tunnel could be constructed faster than a typical highway and more cheaply than a depressed or stacked system -- though a traditional flatland expressway is still the cheapest. Eliminating on- and off-ramps would make driving safer. And air treatment would help clean the skies by removing up to 90 percent of the solids in tunnel exhaust."

Thanks to David Gest

Thursday, June 16, 2005 in HoustonPress

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