Inspection turns up cracks in Westpark Tollway

KPRC reported this weekend that mysterious cracks are showing up in the pavement of the Westpark Tollway — payback, no doubt, for everyone complaining so much about the Westpark peak pricing proposal. (No, not really.)

One of the cracks is west of West Houston Center Boulevard, and the other is west of Synott Road, neither of them on a bridge or overpass. Both of them are about an inch wide and are located near the guardrail in the center of the freeway — and it's going to take a while to figure out what's causing them. The cracks were discovered during a routine inspection in May, and Harris County Toll Road Authority officials say it'll take about four months to determine the reason behind the cracks. That investigation will cost $55,000, with the authority has asked for; in the meantime, it's looking for a way to keep the cracks from getting worse. "All we're trying to do now is find out what it is so we can stop it," HCTRA Director Gary Stobb told KPRC.

Oddly enough, the drivers Channel 2 talked to don't seem to have noticed the cracks — which really isn't all that odd, we guess, considering that the cracks are near the center guardrail and may not be too visible when you're speeding past them. And though Stobb said the road is perfectly safe, motorists don't seem convinced: "There's something wrong with that setup," Reggie Ridley told KPRC. "It makes me nervous. I really didn't know that there was cracks like that in it, but knowing it now, I'm going to be pretty much cautious."