A significant traffic collision brought southbound lanes of IH-45 North to a standstill Monday night, February 16, 2026, at 11:24 PM near the Hardy Toll Road interchange. The crash, reported to TranStar by multiple callers, created gridlock across one of Houston's busiest north-south corridors during the late evening commute period.
Drivers heading south on I-45 faced major delays extending several miles in both directions. The best alternatives for avoiding the backup include taking the Hardy Toll Road itself, which runs parallel to the interstate and connects to local streets throughout the North Houston area. Broadway and Yale Boulevard offer surface-street options for those willing to navigate neighborhood traffic, while drivers with toll accounts might consider the Sam Houston Tollway as a longer but potentially faster route around the jam.
This stretch of I-45 between downtown and the Hardy interchange carries some of the region's heaviest traffic volumes, particularly during evening hours when commuters from The Woodlands and Kingwood head toward downtown and the south side. The intersection with Hardy represents one of the interstate's most congested merge points. The area has seen significant commercial development in recent years, adding to baseline traffic pressures on the corridor.
The southbound direction bore the brunt of the incident's impact. Cleanup and investigation efforts were underway at the scene as of late Monday evening, though specific details about lane closures and vehicle involvement remain limited. Drivers using I-45 South should anticipate residual delays even after initial clearing, as breakdown recovery and debris removal typically extend incident response times considerably on this stretch.
Before this crash, the location had recorded 8 other incidents in 30 days.
Since this crash, 136 additional collisions have happened at the same location. Of the crashes since, 106 were classified as major. 2 of the crashes since this incident was fatal.
The pace of crashes at this location has picked up since.
Several of the crashes occurred back-to-back within days of each other.
Taken together, the counts place this stretch in the upper tier for crashes locally.
Updated through May 30, 2026.
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.