KPRC | by Chris Gutierrez | 7.28.21
A wilderness at the center of downtown Houston where people, animals and busy road traffic will coexist peacefully with the creation of the Memorial Park Land Bridge and prairie.
Traffic on Memorial Drive splits the 1,500 acre urban park space. But traffic will be diverted through two sets of massive tunnels later this year.
“They feel more like going through an overpass in scale than a tunnel,” said Randy Odinet, the VP of Capital Projects at the Memorial Park Conservancy (MPC).
Odinet says construction crews are making progress everyday on completing the tunnels and covering them with massive amounts of dirt. Those tunnels will shift traffic slightly to the south and create a land bridge for people and animals to safely cross over to either side of the park.
“It will be very enjoyable for people, a new amenity for people,” said Shellye Arnold, president of the Memorial Park Conservancy. “They won’t even know they’re crossing Memorial Drive.”