I-10 in Houston: Katy Freeway traffic, safety and projects

The Katy Freeway near Old Voss Rd averaged 330,394 vehicles a day in 2025, the highest annual count at any Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) station in Harris County.¹ West of downtown, I-10 is the Katy Freeway; east of downtown it is the East Freeway, which crosses the San Jacinto River on bridges TxDOT plans to replace.

I-10 traffic counts

All three of the busiest Katy Freeway stations topped 310,000 vehicles a day in 2025. The Old Voss Rd station rose 3.8% from 2024, by Texas Mobility Outlook’s calculation from TxDOT’s annual average daily traffic (AADT) counts. On the East Freeway, the busiest station, near Exit 776A, carried 173,004 vehicles a day, down from 182,870 in 2023.¹

Those volumes are why the Katy Freeway was rebuilt. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) says the freeway was built in the 1960s with three lanes in each direction, for about 80,000 vehicles a day. Forty years later, volumes approached three times that, with congestion lasting up to 11 hours a day.²

Truck traffic on the East Freeway

East of downtown, trucks make up a much larger share of I-10 traffic. TxDOT’s 24-hour count near Cedar Ln on April 30, 2025 found 25,916 trucks among 137,238 vehicles, or 18.88%. Nearly three in four of those trucks (73.3%, computed) were tractor-trailers or other combination trucks.³

That count is the third-highest daily truck volume among the Houston-area classification stations Texas Mobility Outlook compiled, behind two counts on the 610 Loop’s north and east sides. I-10 stations hold the third, fourth and fifth places: Cedar Ln, Exit 750 on the Katy Freeway (23,247 trucks, February 2024) and Lear St on the East Freeway (21,984).³ Closer to downtown on the Katy Freeway, near Patterson St, trucks were 7.69% of traffic in an April 2025 count.

These are raw single-day counts, not annual averages, and the dates differ by station. For the freight network these roads serve, see Texas and Houston freight corridors.

I-10 congestion rankings

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) ranks the Katy Freeway from the 610 West Loop to I-45 sixth in Texas in its 2025 edition, which uses 2024 traffic. TxDOT’s Inner Katy project page still cites that section as seventh, from TTI’s 2023 edition.^4,5 The 1.58-mile stretch from I-45 to US 59, along the north side of downtown, entered the statewide top 10 at No. 10.⁶

For trucks, TTI ranks that short downtown stretch third in Texas, the Katy Freeway from I-610 to I-45 seventh, and the Katy Freeway from N Eldridge Pkwy to Beltway 8 14th.⁴

The Katy Freeway rebuild and managed lanes

TxDOT rebuilt 12 miles of the Katy Freeway, from west of SH 6 to the I-10/610 interchange, between 2003 and October 2008. FHWA describes the result as six general-purpose lanes in each direction plus “two variably priced high occupancy toll lanes in the median.” The project cost $2.79 billion: $1,421 million in federal funds, $1,113 million in state funds, $238 million from the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) and $17.7 million in other local funds.²

HCTRA runs those lanes as the Katy Managed Lanes, 12 miles from SH 6 to I-610. They recorded 37,765,038 transactions in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2025, a count that includes non-toll trips by high-occupancy vehicles.⁷

I-10 projects: status, cost and schedule

Heights Blvd to I-45

TxDOT is raising the I-10 main lanes above the White Oak Bayou floodplain. Texas Clear Lanes lists a 2024-2028 timeline and a $407 million cost.⁸ A TxDOT Connect record updated Aug. 5, 2025 gives a $345.0 million contract estimate, with Webber LLC as contractor and the work 48.71% complete.⁹

Inner Katy managed lanes, Voss Rd to I-45

TxDOT proposes to rebuild 6.3 miles of I-10 between Voss Rd and I-45, which now has five lanes in each direction, and add four managed lanes, two each way.⁵ The corridor crosses about 85 acres of the 100-year floodplain and was impassable during Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and Tropical Storm Imelda in 2019.

TxDOT is weighing three designs. Elevated managed lanes would need about 0.3 acres of new right of way and displace no homes or businesses. A non-elevated design would need about 12.5 acres and displace 52 residences and 30 businesses. A hybrid was still under development.⁵

The schedules conflict. A summer 2025 project newsletter set a public hearing in 2027, an environmental decision in 2028 and the start of construction in 2031.¹⁰ TxDOT’s project database lists the work as “Planning, 10+ years,” with a $900 million estimate and a January 2037 letting (record updated Aug. 28, 2025).⁹

San Jacinto River bridges

TxDOT plans to replace the I-10 main lane bridges over the San Jacinto River, built in 1968 and 1996, across a 4.5-mile project that also covers Spur 330. The new bridges would raise navigation clearance from 23 feet to 52 feet and widen the opening from 158 feet to 386 feet, after repeated barge strikes and barge damage during Harvey. The plan adds one general-purpose lane and two managed lanes in each direction.¹¹

The project page puts the cost at “approximately $555 million.” A TxDOT Connect record updated Sept. 16, 2026 estimates $951.3 million, with letting in November 2029.⁹ Texas Mobility Outlook treats the newer record as current.

Brookshire widening, finished

West of Houston, TxDOT finished widening I-10 from FM 359 to the Brazos River, and rebuilt bridges over the river, with a ribbon cutting on July 1, 2025. TxDOT put the cost at $141 million.¹² Texas Clear Lanes lists $141.2 million and a 2021-2024 timeline. All Houston-area projects are tracked together on Houston highway projects.

I-10 crash data

TxDOT’s annual crash tables do not report I-10 separately. In Harris County, 134 people died on interstates in 2025, a figure that combines I-10 with every other Interstate highway in the county.¹³

The only recent ranking that names Houston’s I-10 is a study commissioned by a bail bond company. As reported by CultureMap Houston, it counted 76 fatal crashes on I-10 in Harris County from 2019 to 2023, ranking it 22nd among U.S. roads and third in Texas by total fatal crashes.¹⁴ Totals like these do not account for traffic volume. Houston’s most dangerous highways sets out every published ranking and its method. Countywide figures by road type are in Harris County crash statistics, and crashes involving trucks are counted in Harris County commercial vehicle crash data.

Hazmat and I-10

I-10 has no hazardous materials designation in TxDOT’s route records for the City of Houston. The city’s designated through route is the 610 Loop, and the Houston Police Department says vehicles carrying hazmat “must use this 610 Loop route and not travel through the city.”^15,16 The I-610 guide covers the loop’s role and its Ship Channel bridge.