El Paso P3 for Loop 375 barrels forward

With no fanfare, the Texas Transportation Commission has approved the most expensive highway project in El Paso’s history: a nine-mile tolled expansion and extension of the Border Highway from U.S. 54 to Sunland Park Drive.

Construction of the toll-road project, approved by the commission at its June 27 meeting, will start early next year, take three years to complete and cost about $800 million.

The four-lane toll way will complete Loop 375 around El Paso, and it will require the demolition of 32 residences and businesses in the Downtown area.

“It’s going to be massive, huge,” said El Pasoan Ted Houghton, who chairs the Texas Transportation Commission, about the western leg. “I don’t think people understand how big it really is. It’s all elevated from Santa Fe Street all the way over to Sunland Park.

“This will change the landscape along Interstate 10, especially around UTEP because those structures – the junkyard – will be gone. The Yandell overpass will also be gone. So, a lot of that old stuff gets cleaned up as you enter into the city.”

He was referring to McKinney Wrecking’s building and yard, whose owner is in negotiations with the state for the property.

The financing for the $800-million project appears murky because the commission’s minute order approves only $300 million of the cost. But that’s not unusual for transportation projects, and Houghton said the money will be there when it’s needed.

The commission’s order also authorizes the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT, to enter into a comprehensive agreement with a developer that “provides for the design, development, financing, construction, maintenance, repair, operation, extension or expansion” of the project.

The state has issued a request for qualifications from interested parties and it will be followed later this year with a request for proposals from joint ventures with design, engineering, construction and financing partners.

“It is anticipated that the developer may be asked to carry construction costs for a period of time, currently projected to be five years or more, after substantial completion,” the order states.

Houghton indicated that won’t be necessary.

“It will be covered when we refinance some debt, which will come probably in the next couple of days,” Houghton said Friday. “We’re getting ready to refinance some debt. That will be the balance of the funds.”

Last year, Houghton told El Paso Inc. that going ahead with the very expensive Border Highway extension project west of Downtown would not depend on whether the tolls from vehicles using it would be sufficient to pay off the bonds that finance it.

“There is no repayment,” Houghton said. “We’ve had a few sources of revenue pop up.”

At the time, he jokingly said the money was in “buried cans in the back yard.”

The seven-mile section of the project that goes from Santa Fe Street in Downtown to Sunland Park will cost nearly $100 million a mile, far too much to be repaid by user fees.

“It’s not toll viable as we speak today, but it does generate enough revenue that you can contribute to maintenance and operation, especially maintenance, instead of using gas tax dollars,” he said.

At the many hearings and meetings leading up to the project’s approval, El Paso residents, officials and transportation experts said the city is in dire need of an alternative route to I-10.

The commission’s agenda stated as much and noted that the project had received the required environmental clearances and record of decision on June 7.

“The Loop 375 Border Highway West Project is a high priority for the state and meets the conditions necessary for delivery under a comprehensive development agreement,” the agenda stated. “The project is intended to be incrementally supported by toll revenue.”

The Border Highway West segment will be a four-lane, controlled access roadway.

Heading east

Construction has already begun on the Border Highway East project. It involves building two new lanes in the median of the Border Highway, and those lanes will not be segregated from the two existing free lanes in each direction.

That $65-million to $70-million project covers 11 miles from U.S. 54 to Zaragosa Road and is scheduled to open next January.

“It’s wild,” said state. Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, referring to what he called a hybrid toll road because the inner tolled lanes won’t be separated from the free lanes. They will be clearly marked, however.

“The dangerous thing about this one for TxDOT is that it’s not going to be a divided highway, meaning the new inside managed lanes are going to be next to the untolled lanes, and everything is going to be based on a high-tech gantry system,” Pickett said. “So if you’re driving along and you move into the inside lane, you’re going to be picked up by a camera, which will read your toll tag and it will charge you.”

If there is no prepaid sticker on the vehicle, the gantry system will photograph the license plate and the owner will receive a bill for that and any other toll road trips at the end of the month.

The unique thing about the Border Highway East project, Pickett said, is that if the tolled lanes don’t pay off the cost of the project in 15 years, they’ll be converted to free lanes.

“It’s the first of its kind in Texas,” said Pickett, who claimed that measure as his addition to the legislation.