The La Porte-Houston highway was dedicated in 1929, following a route along most of the current alignment. The highway was designated on December 21, 1935, with the western terminus of the route at
US 75.) with the La Porte-Houston highway. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) officially designated the new freeway section as part of SH 225 on August 25, 1954, with the western terminus now at
State Highway 35. The alignment for the freeway replacement of the La Porte-Houston highway was set during the 1950s. The route passed through a part of
Milby Park, which caused legal problems due to a clause in the will that deeded the park land to the city. The city of Houston refused to sell the right-of-way, so TxDOT acquired it via
condemnation, triggering a lawsuit by Milby's daughter that was resolved in 1961. Construction of the freeway began in 1964, with sections completed through 1970. Construction halted due to funding issues in the 1970s, resumed again in the early 1980s, halted again in 1984, and was finally complete in 2000. On April 2, 1969, TxDOT extended the route of SH 225 to
US 59 in downtown Houston, in anticipation of construction of the Harrisburg Freeway (see below), replacing Spur 97, and the section of SH 225 from Spur 97 to SH 35 became part of I-610.
The Harrisburg Freeway The Harrisburg Freeway is the name of a once-planned freeway extension of SH 225 into downtown Houston. The extension was never completed due to lack of funding and neighborhood opposition along its proposed route. The extension was originally proposed in a 1960 traffic study, with the aim of relieving congestion on the Gulf Freeway. The recommended alignment followed Harrisburg Boulevard through a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. In 1962, TxDOT agreed to build interchanges for the proposed freeway at Interstate 610 and the terminus at US 59 (the planned western terminus is located east of present-day
Minute Maid Park). In 1969, after delaying for several years due to a backlog in freeway construction, the Texas Transportation Commission put the Harrisburg Freeway in the state highway system. As the process of selecting the route and obtaining approval for the freeway began, neighborhood activists proposed an alternate route from the one tentatively proposed. The alternate route would skirt the neighborhood, running near the
Houston Ship Channel and
Buffalo Bayou. As planning continued, opposition developed over both the original route and a short-lived 1979 proposal by the
Texas Turnpike Authority to make the freeway a tollway. The competing routes remained under study until 1973, when the original route was announced as the recommended alignment. The route was approved by the Houston-Galveston Area Council, despite appeals from neighborhood activists. However, the construction never got off the ground. The
environmental impact statement for the project was rejected by the
United States Environmental Protection Agency, and TxDOT put the project on hold due to a shortage of highway funds. The Harrisburg Freeway was never revived, and the city of Houston finally deleted it from the
Major Thoroughfare and Freeway Plan. ==Route description==