Houston First Corporation Assessing How to Turn Lights Back on Broken Bridge in Montrose Area 59/69

Mikal Wyckoff

Six years ago this month, when Houston last hosted the Super Bowl, the six bridges that cross part of the Southwest Highway were newly decorated with bright, colorful lights that were stunning and awe-inspiring to residents and visitors alike.

Now, as the city prepares to host the NCAA Final Four men’s basketball tournament in early April, the lights have long since gone out, and this section of the freeway — in the busy Montrose neighborhood between downtown and the upcoming games at NRG Stadium — is much like any other freeway.

According to the organization that claimed responsibility for them, the lights are technically still on, but have not been working for several months. And it will probably take at least that much time before they light up again.

“Switches are on. We just don’t have many working lamps,” said Holly Clapham, director of marketing for Houston First Corporation. “I was told that there could be a few flickering lights… This is a failure of the lighting system.”

Clapham said Houston First, a local government corporation that manages city-owned real estate and serves as the city’s sales and marketing arm, is conducting diagnostic evaluations of the lights at the direction of city officials to figure out how to get them. along with how to support them and finance their work on a long-term basis. That evaluation has begun over the past few months and could be completed by late spring or early summer, Clapham said.

Clapham said Houston First agreed to take over decorative lighting responsibility in 2019 after their original creator and manager, Montrose County, disbanded in 2018. The lights were installed ahead of the Super Bowl in 2017 through a partnership between the county and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), which owns the freeway and the bridges that cross it, oversaw the installation of the lights and subsequently entered into an agreement with Houston First, Clapham said.

Because Houston First has no experience in lighting or bridging, Clapham said it is seeking input from industry experts as part of its ongoing assessment. The goal, she says, is to come up with a viable long-term plan, not a short-term solution, and ensure that the lights don’t fail again.

Mikal Wyckoff

“If we were making the same mistakes, no one should be wasting their time,” Clapham said. “We don’t want Houston to be disappointed.”

The lighting installation cost just over $3 million, according to TxDOT. According to Clapham, they began to fail a few months after Houston First took over their operation, shortly before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, according to Clapham, who said that by then the warranty period for lights expired.

After that, more and more light sources gradually stopped working, according to Clapham. Since the Super Bowl in 2017, color-changing LED lights have also been used to celebrate events such as the first Houston Astros World Series championship later that year, as well as Pride Month every June.

Following the dissolution of the Montrose Management District, which paid for electricity bills related to lighting operations, Clapham said the city has taken steps to cover those costs. Mary Benton, spokeswoman for Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, said in an email that NRG Energy had agreed to cover the electricity costs for lighting the bridge.

“Houston First is being asked to service the lighting system because it is part of the iconic Houston brand,” Benton added.

Determining how best to maintain and fund the lights going forward is part of an assessment being conducted by Houston First, which plans to consult with TxDOT, among other organizations. Another factor under consideration is TxDOT’s planned expansion of Interstate 45 near and north of downtown, which is on hold pending a Federal Highway Administration environmental and civil rights investigation.

Danny Perez, a spokesman for TxDOT’s Houston office, said the section of Southwest Highway where the bridge lights are located will be affected by the I-45 project. From east to west, bridges with lights run along Montrose Boulevard, Graustark Street, Mundell Street, Dunlavy Street, Woodhead Street and Hazard Street.

“When things move forward,” Perez said of the I-45 project, “this particular section will be part of the redevelopment.”