{"id":37614,"date":"2025-11-06T04:54:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T04:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/37614\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T04:54:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T04:54:21","slug":"polk-street-in-downtown-houston-closes-for-grb-expansion-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/37614\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk Street in downtown Houston closes for GRB expansion project"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2013 The first step in the George R. Brown Convention Center\u2019s major expansion is set to take place on Wednesday, when a portion of Polk Street will be closed. <\/p>\n

INITIAL REPORT: Polk Street closure on the table as GRB expansion and I-45 rebuild reshape downtown traffic<\/a><\/p>\n

Polk Street, a critical route into downtown for most Houstonians, will be shut down between Chartres Street and Avendida de las Americas starting on Wednesday, November 5. <\/p>\n

This comes after the Houston City Council<\/a> voted 14-1 to permanently close a section of Polk Street<\/a> on Oct. 15, although many residents urged the council to vote against the project. <\/p>\n

They argued that large-scale projects like this have repeatedly come at their expense \u2014 from freeway construction to other city developments \u2014 cutting them off from key parts of Houston while promising \u201cprogress\u201d that hasn\u2019t benefited everyone equally.<\/p>\n

Houston First Corporation, which is leading the convention center expansion, defends the plan. <\/p>\n

The organization says closing Polk is essential to transforming the George R. Brown and is designed to align with TxDOT\u2019s ongoing I-45 reconstruction project.<\/p>\n

MORE: Ghettoized\u2019: Houston\u2019s East End residents fear convention center expansion cuts them off from downtown<\/a><\/p>\n

Closure Timeline:<\/p>\n

Nov. 10 – Demolition will begin on the GRB\u2019s south ramp that crosses over Polk Street <\/p>\n

Nov. 14-17 and 21-14 – TxDOT will close the I-59 southbound ramps to I-45 (Drivers are encouraged to exit West Gray and take Pease St. or Joseph Pkwy into Downtown<\/p>\n

Nov. 28 – the sidewalk of Polk Street between Chartress and ADLA will reopen for pedestrian and bicycle traffic ( Drivers are encouraged to take Pease Street or St. Joseph Parkway) <\/p>\n

Work that will take place on and around Polk in the coming months includes, but is not limited to:<\/p>\n

Demolition of GRB ramp over Polk Street<\/p>\n

Demolition of the current Rustic location<\/p>\n

Utility waterline work<\/p>\n

Avenida South Garage electrical work<\/p>\n

GRB skybridge demolition<\/p>\n

Avenida South Garage demolition<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 The first step in the George R. Brown Convention Center\u2019s major expansion is set to take…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4904,4475,5084,5079,56,4626,4994,5083,58,57,5081,5080,3743,5078,1225,5082,272,271],"class_list":["post-37614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-downtown-houston","tag-eado","tag-east-end","tag-george-r-brown-convention-center","tag-houston","tag-houston-city-council","tag-houston-city-hall","tag-houston-first","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-roads","tag-i-45-expansion-project","tag-john-whitmire","tag-polk-street","tag-public-safety","tag-texas-roads","tag-traffic","tag-txdot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}