A major crash brought northbound traffic to a crawl on IH-45 Gulf at Howard Drive and Bellfort Avenue at 6:43 AM on Tuesday, February 10, 2026, disrupting the start of the morning commute across Harris County. The incident blocked significant lanes on one of Houston's busiest north-south corridors during peak travel hours, creating backups that extended well beyond the crash site.
The timing couldn't have been worse for commuters heading into downtown and the Medical Center. Drivers caught in the backup faced delays of 30 minutes or more as traffic bottlenecked through the Howard Drive interchange. Those heading north should have diverted to surface streets like Bellfort Avenue or shifted east toward the East Freeway, while westbound traffic on local roads through Greenspoint and the surrounding areas absorbed additional volume. The Gulf Freeway's consistent morning congestion means this stretch rarely moves freely before 9 AM, and a major incident here compounds an already tight commute window for thousands of drivers.
This particular section of IH-45 Gulf between Bellfort and the Houston Ship Channel has long been a pressure point during morning hours. The Howard Drive interchange serves as a major connection point for traffic heading toward the Texas Medical Center, downtown Houston, and points north. Rush hour traffic regularly builds through here as commuters from Pearland, League City, and the surrounding suburbs funnel onto the mainlanes. The area sees consistent heavy volume, making it vulnerable to cascading delays when incidents occur.
The northbound direction bore the brunt of the crash's impact, with lanes significantly affected. The incident remained active in the early morning hours, and drivers heading through the corridor needed to be aware of potential lane restrictions and debris. By mid-morning, crews were working to clear the scene and restore normal traffic flow, though residual delays persisted as traffic patterns gradually normalized. Anyone traveling that stretch over the next few hours should expect heavier than normal conditions as the system recovered.
Sources: TxDOT Crash Records Information System and Local Traffic Accidents database. Counts through October 1, 2026.
The location had seen 4 crashes in the 30 days leading up to this incident.
269 more crashes have been documented at this location since this incident. Of the crashes since, 154 were classified as major.
Incidents have been arriving more often at this location since.
Multiple crashes occurred at this location within a tight time window.
Combined, those numbers put the location among the most active in the county.
Data current as of October 06, 2026.
IH-45 Gulf Northbound at Howard Dr/Bellfort Ave
Harris County, Texas
This report was produced by LTA's editor-designed production system under the executive editorial direction of Dennis R. Mundy, Executive Editor. The system combines our proprietary data pipeline with AI-assisted drafting to deliver verified incident coverage to LTA's editorial standards.