The roadway part of the Montrose Boulevard rebuild is finished. The Montrose Redevelopment Authority's July 2026 year-in-review lists "completed full roadway reconstruction" for Segment 1, the half-mile from W. Clay Street to Allen Parkway. The pedestrian bridge over Allen Parkway opened in April. The things you'd notice most on foot are still arriving, though. The streetlights were not yet listed as on. The contractor has committed to replacing affected trees this fall. And the dog park at the bayou end of the walk was closed after storms as of September.
So this fall, the boulevard is complete as a road and still settling in as a walk. Here's what's on the ground between W. Clay and the bayou, what's still pending, and where each piece came from.
Starting at W. Clay
The south end of the project is the HAWK crossing signal at W. Clay Street, near Wharton Elementary. The Montrose TIRZ also lists high-visibility crosswalks, ADA ramps, new streetlights and no-right-turn-on-red signs as part of the pedestrian package. At W. Dallas Street, the signal was upgraded instead of replaced with a new type of crossing.
The street itself has four 12-foot travel lanes on 11-inch concrete, divided by a median. That width was a deliberate choice. The TIRZ's schematic plans for traffic on this stretch to grow from 24,022 vehicles a day to 29,021 by 2040, about a fifth more cars than the current count.
How the sidewalk changes block by block
The sidewalk isn't one uniform width. It changes as you head north, and in places it narrows around trees that were kept:
| Stretch | Sidewalk as designed |
|---|---|
| W. Clay to W. Dallas | Six feet on both sides |
| W. Dallas to Allen Parkway | Eight feet on the east side |
| Around existing trees | Narrows to four or five feet |
The narrow spots are where the design gave way to existing trees. If you're pushing a stroller or walking two abreast with a dog, that's where you'll feel it.
Under the pavement, the biggest change is one you'll never see. The old, smaller drainage pipes were replaced with 10-by-10-foot box culverts, which add about five acre-feet of underground detention. Community Impact put the project's cost at $17.9 million in October 2025.
The bridge at the north end
The wider east-side sidewalk leads to the most visible new piece of the project, the pedestrian bridge over Allen Parkway. The idea goes back a few years. In June 2023, the Downtown Redevelopment Authority's TIRZ 3 board approved an agreement with the Montrose TIRZ to convert the Montrose Street Bridge over Allen Parkway into a pedestrian and bicycle bridge.
Walk and Roll Houston held a celebration for the opening of the Montrose Pedestrian Bridge on Saturday, April 18, 2026. They gathered at the corner of Allen Parkway and Montrose Boulevard in front of the Ismaili Center. The group's description sums it up: the bridge "connects Montrose to Buffalo Bayou Park" for people walking and rolling.
On the park side, the nearest landmark is Johnny Steele Dog Park at 2929 Allen Parkway. Buffalo Bayou Partnership describes it as sitting on the south bank of the bayou, just west of Montrose and Allen Parkway. That's why the dog park's status matters for this route. As of the Partnership's September 2026 park page, the dog park was temporarily closed because of the recent storms, and the Partnership said reopening news would come on its site and social channels. If the dog park is the reason for your walk, check the Buffalo Bayou Park page before you set out.
Farther west along the bayou is Lost Lake at 3422 Allen Parkway. It's open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and is home to FLORA, A Mexican Kitchen. With the bridge open, you can walk from Montrose Boulevard to dinner on the water without crossing Allen Parkway at street level.
What's still arriving this fall
Here's the unfinished list. Most of it is about how the walk will feel, not how the road works.
- Streetlights. The TIRZ project page says the streetlights are "progressing towards being turned on." It doesn't confirm they're on. The same page still says single-lane closures may be needed while construction wraps up.
- Replacement trees. In a landscape update signed by Matt Brollier, chair of the Montrose Redevelopment Authority and TIRZ 27, the TIRZ says every tree on the corridor has been evaluated. The contractor will replace "all affected trees this fall" under the project warranty, at no cost to the TIRZ or the community, and the maintenance program is being strengthened. The update doesn't say how many trees were affected or which species.
- The cypress question. The March 2025 planting plan called for 13 live oaks and 99 Lanana cypress, 112 new trees in all. At the May 18, 2026 board meeting, a resident asked about maintenance of certain cypress trees planted along the boulevard.
The trees are the item to watch. Of the 112 new trees, 99 are cypress, so most of the future shade on this half-mile depends on the cypress planting doing well. Updates are posted on the Montrose Boulevard project page.
Why the corridor looks the way it does
The tree commitments make more sense with the history in mind. The current design came out of a public debate in 2025. Concern about removing mature oaks, along with questions about safety and accessibility, led the mayor to pause the earlier design. The newly appointed TIRZ board then removed the shared-use path for walkers and cyclists, kept the wider vehicle lanes and scaled back the sidewalk plans, as the Houston Chronicle reported in March 2025. Houston Public Media covered a March 31, 2025 protest at Montrose and Clay against the redesign. Construction started that same week.
That history explains three things you'll see on the street today. Sidewalks narrow around older trees because those trees were kept. Bikes share the road with cars because the shared-use path was dropped. And the lanes are wide because keeping their width was part of the revised plan. The original schedule called for construction to end in the second quarter of 2026. The road work is done. Turning on the lights and replacing trees is still underway.
South of W. Clay, a separate project
South of W. Clay, toward Westheimer, the work isn't part of the TIRZ rebuild. City of Houston Public Works is running its own project there: resurfacing, spot ADA ramp and sidewalk replacement, and upgraded storm-sewer inlets. The roadway, median and sidewalk widths described above don't continue past W. Clay.
Farther down Montrose Boulevard, there's more news to add to the walk. Leighton's opened its second location at 4315 Montrose Blvd. on May 10, 2026, off Richmond Avenue near the University of St. Thomas, according to Community Impact. Half Price Books has announced it's returning to Montrose at 3509 Montrose Blvd. Houston Public Media reported in July that the store is scheduled to open in early 2027.
For now, the walk north from W. Clay goes like this: a new HAWK crossing at W. Clay, six-foot sidewalks that widen to eight past W. Dallas, an open bridge over Allen Parkway, and a bayou-side dog park waiting to reopen.
Projects like this one change how a street works for years before they show up in a listing description. I keep track of them for that reason. If you live near Montrose Boulevard and want to talk through what the finished corridor could mean for your block or your home, Ashley Eoff is happy to walk it with you. Let's Connect.
