History
In the 1940s and early 1950s, Memorial Drive was originally intended to be one of ten freeway spokes extending outward from Downtown Houston. Despite the explosive population growth in the Houston area in recent decades, the heaviest traffic on Memorial Drive was in the early 1960s. Nearly 47,000 vehicles per day traveled on the section at Waugh Drive in 1960. When the Katy Freeway opened in 1968, the road's importance as a high-speed corridor decreased. In contrast to its earlier days, between 30,000 and 36,000 vehicles per day traveled along this section in 2001.
Houston City Council member Palm Holm announced in May 2007 that a large portion, roughly one fourth of the Memorial's length, will be expanded and beautified. The stretch of road from George Bush Park eastward to Gessner Road, about 6.2 miles (9.9 km), will be renovated to meet the population boom in the west Houston area. The first part of the expansion was slated to begin in 2009.
Read more about this topic: Memorial Drive (Houston, Texas)
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