Spur 527 on-ramp for emergency vehicles only

Via blogHouston, what is it with on-ramps along the new Spur 527? First there was Deathramp 527, a.k.a. the on-ramp from Milam and Alabama, which spits drivers out onto the spur from behind a wall that gives them almost no visibility when merging, and now there's the Blodgett ramp a little down the road, which was apparently so poorly designed that it will be closed to everyone but emergency vehicles from now on.

"We found limited gaps in the U.S. 59 traffic stream and observed some ramp motorists using the right shoulder during freeway merging, creating unexpected high-speed conflicts with outbound Spur 527 travel lanes immediately downstream of the ramp," said district spokeswoman Janelle Gbur.

"Most motorists using this ramp had some difficulty entering within the available merge area," she said.

"In consideration of the high-traffic volumes ... the limited merge distance, low Blodgett ramp traffic volumes, available freeway ramps nearby and constrained right of way, we have determined that closing this ramp is the best alternative," Gbur said.

We don't remember having used the Blodgett ramp — after a few near-misses on the Deathramp, we decided to get on the spur at the beginning, from Elgin — but in passing, it appears the design of the Blodgett ramp is much safer than that of the Milam/Alabama ramp. However, we're not highway engineers: It clearly takes trained professionals to design freeways like this.