Air Alliance Houston (AAH) was funded by the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation under the 500 Cities Data Challenge to conduct a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of the proposed I-45 highway expansion project known as the North Houston Highway Improvement Project (NHHIP).
On September 17, 2018, AAH held a stakeholder workshop about the assessment. The workshop was designed to educate participants about the health effects of freeways; familiarize them with the process of conducting an HIA; and, give them an opportunity for input on the focus of the assessment and associated recommendations.
The feedback from the workshop suggested that further research should be conducted to understand the underlying levels of vulnerability among neighborhoods adjacent to the freeway as well as which opportunities for modifying the current design would benefit the groups that are at highest risk of negative health and economic outcomes associated with the project.
AAH is now using this feedback to guide the assessment. The results from the HIA will be released in Spring 2019.
