A year after the city of Houston began ripping up and reshaping Midtown's Austin Street for a drainage project, workers have not yet finished the job.

Why it matters: The undertaking is already $1.6 million over its initial estimate, according to the city.

• The project is a key point of contention between Mayor John Whitmire's administration and street safety advocates. Whitmire's administration prioritizes relieving inner-city traffic congestion he says plagues drivers, while advocates say that jeopardizes the safety of pedestrians and bike riders.

Catch up quick: The work includes waterline and drainage improvements, along with a rehabilitation of the roadway, according to Houston Public Works.

Driving the news: While the project was scheduled to be completed in summer 2025, surprises during construction and below-standard work prolonged the work well into 2026.

• The project faced initial delays after crews discovered "waterline conflicts" at the onset that stopped work for several months, Houston Public Works director Randy Macchi says in a statement to Axios.
• Then, after crews finished the drainage work, paved the roadway and painted lane markings, officials decided pavement and striping didn't meet the city's standards, Macchi adds.

The latest: Workers tore up the new pavement and are overlaying a fresh bed of asphalt before painting stripes on again.

By the numbers: The project was initially estimated to cost $4 million, which included $2 million for new waterlines, $1 million for drainage and sidewalk improvements and $1 million for the road surface rehabilitation.

• The waterline work wound up costing $3.2 million, Macchi tells Axios. The drainage and sidewalk portion totaled $1.4 million after the city added more sidewalk and driveway improvements.
• The final cost for road surface rehabilitation has yet to be realized as that work continues.

What's next: The work is now slated to be complete by the end of April, Macchi says.

Between the lines

Houston saw fewer traffic deaths in 2025 than in 2024, preliminary data shows.

Why it matters: While lower, the 2025 death toll was still higher than yearly counts before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The big picture: Traffic deaths fell nationwide in 2025 to their lowest since 2019, before they spiked during the pandemic. But in Houston, the decline hasn't kept pace.

Driving the news: Last year, 300 people died and 1,516 people were seriously injured in traffic crashes on roadways in Houston, according to crash report data from the Texas Department of Transportation compiled by Axios.

By the numbers: Of 2025's traffic deaths, 99 were pedestrians and 10 were cyclists. There were 280 fatal crashes total, with some crashes claiming multiple lives.

• The majority (154) of the 280 crashes happened on city-operated streets. Ninety crashes occurred on an interstate, and 36 happened on a state highway, tollway, farm-to-market road or a "non trafficway."

Flashback: Houston saw 209 traffic deaths in 2018; 263 in 2019; and 269 in 2020.

• The annual death count jumped to 325 in 2021 and 324 in 2022, before falling to 300 in 2023.
• In 2024, 341 people died.

Zoom in: Data shows that police cited a driver's failure to drive in a single lane as the top contributing factor in Houston's fatal crashes in 2025.

• More than 70% of the city's pedestrian deaths were believed to be due to the pedestrian's failure to yield the right of way to the driver, per the data.

Zoom out

🌎 NASA released photos yesterday from the Artemis II crew's lunar flyby this week, providing new takes on age-old space photography. (Scientific American)

🐺 In an effort to reduce road kill, Texas highway officials installed signs in Galveston alerting drivers to the island's rare ghost wolves. (Houston Public Media)

🏗️ A $54 million residential development is in the works for the Washington Avenue corridor. (Chron)

Texas is home to some of America's lowest tippers, according to Toast data.

The big picture: Nationwide, tips at full-service restaurants averaged 19.2% in Q4 2025, the same as the previous quarter, per Toast's latest restaurant trends report.

• "After a pullback in full-service restaurant tips in Q2 2025, the average has leveled out," Toast's Brian Koerber wrote in the report.

Yes, but: The average tip left at Texas restaurants in Q4 2025 was 18.5% of the bill.

• Texas had the 8th lowest tip rate among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Zoom out: Delaware, West Virginia, New Hampshire and Indiana had some of the highest tip rates, with diners leaving roughly 21% or higher on average.

The other side: At the bottom of the list for overall tipping are California, Washington, D.C., and Washington state, where averages run under 18%.

The fine print: The report is based on data from restaurants using the Toast platform.

• Cash tips aren't included.

The bottom line: Tipping culture may be under scrutiny, but diners' habits are holding steady.

👋 Shafaq here! On my evening strolls lately, the smell of jasmine has been wafting through the air.

• A few yards later, I'll spot the house where I assume it's coming from, vines spilling over.

So, thank you to the neighbors who planted them — they've made these walks a beautiful sensory experience and a little more delightful.

The bottom line: This stretch of weather feels like what I always picture spring to be: it welcomes you outside to actually stop to smell the flowers.