Interstate-10 Construction

1958

The construction of Interstate-10 sliced across the top of the newly built neighborhood. With the Houston Ship Channel and port to the south, Pleasantville was now sandwiched between heavy polluting infrastructures.

A major artery across the US south, Interstate 10 runs from California to Florida and was constructed over a span of decades. The Houston portion of I-10, known in the west as the Katy Freeway and in the east as the Baytown-East Freeway, consolidated a number of smaller routes into an interstate freeway that would become increasingly congested with traffic, leading to lane expansions and increasing pollution in surrounding neighborhoods. With the construction of the section of I-10 that sliced across the top of Pleasantville in 1958, the neighborhood became more well connected to the city growing around it. It also became increasingly toxified by the carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and other airborne chemicals the freeway brought with it.