Dan Lauck's 11 News report

Several months into one of the largest highway construction projects in American history and Steve Shannon is still standing.

KHOU - TV

His business, Shannon’s Mobil Station in the 8800 has, at times, been all but impossible to reach.

Yet, at the same time, he says his property appraisal more than doubled.

He says he talked them down to 25 percent. “Still, that means more money out of my pocket for taxes this year.”

At least, Shannon’s business wasn’t scheduled to be bulldozed.

Being located on the Katy Freeway was once promoted as the best known business address in Houston.

Courtesy Chevrolet on 7777 Katy Freeway and 59 Diner were supposed to survive the project.

Instead, those businesses have been scraped from the earth and flatted to make way for new lanes of traffic.

Politically, that was easier to sell than digging up the cemetery.

Steve and his wife, Michelle, with nine months of construction left, are thinking about selling the station. “We’re just tired of living in the heart of the city and all the traffic.”

Steve is now thinking of moving to Tomball.

He’d be there just in time for the expansion of highway 249.