Cottage Grove Infrastructure Update

It has been a while since we posted, but we've sure been busy! We wanted to update you, the Cottage Grove community, on what the Civic Association has been doing since we last met.

Feeder Road Safety Changes

On Saturday, October 23, a major car crash occurred at Cottage Grove Park in the middle of the night. This car, like many others have done, was speeding on the I-10 feeder road that dead-ends at the park and careened into the park. Luckily the driver walked away, but it could have been much worse. the Civic Association leadership sent this letter of concern to District C's Council Member Kamin. Her office is working with TxDOT, the entity responsible for the feeder road, and Civic Association leadership to implement major safety changes by the end of the year. More information will be available in the upcoming meeting on December 9.

Car crash at Cottage Grove Park, early morning hours of October 23, 2021

Major Sewage Line Replacement Project

Over the past month, a project has been underway to replace a major sewage line running through the West and Central portions of Cottage Grove. The streets primarily impacted have been Kansas and Kiam Street. This will replace a smaller pipe with a larger one and address many breaks and issues with the old pipe.

Work is ongoing to dig up and replace the pipe. Once this work is complete, all the holes will be replaced with street-width asphalt patches. An additional phase of pipe replacement has been approved but is not yet scheduled for 2 additional blocks of Kansas and Kiam Streets nearest TC Jester. Going through this is painful, but it will be worth it in the end to have proper sewage infrastructure in our neighborhood!

Sewage line replacements, while disruptive, will upgrade critical infrastructure in our neighborhood

Street, Sidewalk, and Drainage Requests

Cottage Grove Civic Association leadership has been working hard to gather data over a period of several months to illustrate the extremely poor state our of our neighborhood infrastructure. An ArcGIS map has been completed that calculates street widths, documents the state of overhead utilities, reports the depth and condition of drainage ditches, and more. A sidewalk inventory has also been completed.

All this data was recently presented to City leaders in the form of this letter and this brief that detail Cottage Grove's urgent infrastructure needs and outline the following requests:

• Bring forward a capital project via a City of Houston Capital Improvement Project (CIP) to install basic infrastructure in all of Cottage Grove, including streets, sidewalks, drainage, and power/data line remediation

• Advocate on our behalf to move the Cottage Grove East CIP item back into 2022 after having been delayed for several years

We have received communication from District C and At-Large Council Member Sallie Alcorn that they are working on a response to our request. We should have an update for our meeting on December 9 - we hope you can attend!

Fire trucks are unable to get through the narrow streets, causing life safety issues for residents

Become a Member and Support Our Community

Do you live in Cottage Grove but haven't joined the Civic Association yet? Please consider doing so and help us advocate to make our community a better place. Join today!