The state transportation agency is proceeding with a project to reconstruct and widen a six-mile stretch of Interstate 10 from Executive Center Boulevard to Copia Street in the core of El Paso, even as residents and some of the city’s elected officials for years have pushed back and argued it’s unnecessary.
El Paso motorists should expect to see their travel patterns and commute times upended when the Texas Department of Transportation begins work on the $1.3 billion Downtown 10 project in the coming years.
TxDOT is gathering public feedback until Oct. 14. It will likely take another two to three years before the multi-year construction phase commences. It will be the next step in the ongoing project to widen I-10 in Northwest El Paso from Transmountain Road to Mesa Street.
“The proposed operational improvement would widen I-10 up to six lanes in each direction,” Tomas Treviño, TxDOT’s El Paso district engineer, said during a virtual public hearing about the project on Sept. 16. “Additional improvements include adding two-lane frontage roads in each direction, ramp and operational improvements and bicycle-pedestrian paths.”
TxDOT and transportation planners in El Paso have said the aging pavement and pillars along I-10 need to be updated to meet new standards. And the highway needs to be expanded with new lanes because the state agency’s computer models say traffic will get much worse in El Paso in the future without a bigger freeway.
By 2042, TxDOT predicts the average vehicle speeds will decline to 28 miles per hour in the Downtown segment and commute times will increase by 80%. Without updating and widening the freeway, TxDOT expects vehicles would travel at just 27 miles per hour when the highway intersects with Cotton Street, versus an average speed of 60 mph with a wider highway.
The segment of I-10 east of Downtown has four lanes compared with three lanes in the Downtown area, so supporters say the widening project will conform the highway to match other portions of I-10 and ease the bottlenecks in the sections with fewer lanes.
El Paso’s state lawmakers have largely supported the highway expansion. The city’s place as a hub of trade and logistics means the region’s road transportation network is “the lifeblood of our economy,” state Rep. Joe Moody said during a panel discussion hosted by El Paso Matters earlier this year.
“These are the arterials that move people and goods that allow our economy to thrive,” he said.
TxDOT will likely begin negotiating soon with property owners next to the freeway on Yandell Drive. The state agency is planning to acquire and demolish several buildings to make way for the additional highway lane, such as the Holocaust museum, the Triumph public charter high school, a glass-paned office building, a Speedway gas station and the Pearl Apartments building.
The process of acquiring the properties could extend into 2027.
TxDOT also plans to demolish the Prospect Street bridge that currently runs over I-10. The agency will make the trenched portion of I-10 in Downtown deeper, as well as add biking and walking trails at ground-level next to the highway.
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute lists the most congested road segments in the state every year. In 2024, two stretches of I-10 in El Paso were among the top-100 most congested road segments, but they weren’t Downtown.
El Paso drivers experience the most traffic congestion on the stretch of I-10 that spans from Transmountain Road to Mesa Street – where the first phase of TxDOT’s highway widening project has snarled traffic for years. It was the 47th-most congested road in the state last year, according to the Transportation Institute’s most recent report.
The segment of I-10 between Patriot Freeway and Hawkins Boulevard was the 97th most-congested stretch of road in Texas last year, according to the institute. No other roads in El Paso were among the top 100 most traffic-riddled roads in the state.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES: Downtown I-10 expansion to undergo environmental analysis
Many in El Paso – and elsewhere in Texas – have challenged TxDOT’s conclusion that adding lanes eases congestion along highways.
Opponents have said a bigger highway will likely attract more cars to fill the additional lane, and also create more air pollution for neighborhoods near Downtown. And adding another lane runs counter to the city’s stated goals of becoming a more walkable city that requires less driving, not more.
The expansion of I-10 “is not justified by the data. There is no congestion in Downtown El Paso,” said Kathleen Staudt, a professor emeritus at the University of Texas at El Paso and a leader of the local advocacy group Community First Coalition.
Staudt was one of several speakers at a news conference a collection of neighborhood groups hosted Sept. 16 outside the El Paso Convention Center to speak out against the I-10 expansion just before TxDOT held a public hearing to gather feedback on the project.
“Yes, there’s congestion elsewhere. If I-10 is expanded, it will merely attract more cars and semi-trucks. Do we really need to be driving near all these semi-trucks in Downtown El Paso?”” Staudt said.
Dozens of El Pasoans responded to a request from El Paso Matters to share their thoughts on the I-10 project.
The vast majority were opposed to the project, largely because of the traffic snarls they expect the reconstruction will create. Many respondents said the city should re-route semi-trucks to drive around the city – instead of on I-10 in the city’s core – and through the Anthony Gap highway before reconnecting with I-10 on the northern edge of El Paso. A few expressed support for the expansion, understanding that it would create traffic congestion during construction.
Many others said they’d prefer to see government investments in El Paso’s public transit system rather than highway infrastructure.
“It’s good that the congestion problem is being recognized, but I don’t see it being handled correctly,” said Daniel DeLuca, a 29-year-old military veteran who lives on the Eastside.
He said there are other options to reduce traffic congestion, such as adding HOV lanes and also ramp metering, which slows down the number of vehicles exiting onto the highway.
“Increasing the use of and accessibility to public transit is sorely neglected in El Paso,” DeLuca added. “It’s always an afterthought, and I believe the city is hamstringing itself not investing more in this infrastructure.”
Some respondents said expanding the highway will ease traffic flows and prevent Downtown – where the highway currently narrows to three lanes before widening east and west of Downtown – from becoming a bottleneck.
“I understand the impetus for improving that corridor, and I think long term it makes total sense to do it,” said Matthew Guzman, a 40-year-old resident of Sunset Heights near Downtown. He was concerned, though, about an influx of drivers in his neighborhood as people re-route to avoid I-10 during construction.
“The biggest benefit will be the increased traffic flow and efficiency created once the project is completed,” Guzman said. “And hopefully we end up with the deck park.”
How does the deck plaza fit in?
The widening project is the impetus for the proposed deck plaza project that would cap a five block stretch of I-10 in Downtown. Deck plaza supporters say they must develop the deck park at the same time as the highway widening project to avoid multiple major disruptions to travelers along I-10.
TxDOT will proceed with its highway widening regardless of what happens with the deck plaza. That’s why the deck plaza backers – mainly the Paso del Norte Foundation – are trying to put hundreds of millions in funding together before TxDOT begins soliciting bids for the I-10 project in 2027 or 2028.
So far, the foundation said it has raised $35 million in private funding, and the Texas Legislature earlier this year contributed $10 million towards the project. A recently-published study that was commissioned by the project’s boosters suggested the full cost to build a cap over the freeway and add numerous amenities would cost $197 million.
Where the remainder of the funding would come from is unclear. Tracy Yellen, CEO of the Paso del Norte Foundation, has said ideally most or all of the shortfall would be filled with state or federal grants.
As far as TxDOT’s project, the agency is continuing work on the initial segment of the highway widening in northwest El Paso, and could begin soliciting bids for work on the Downtown expansion in 2027 or 2028.
After that, TxDOT plans a third segment to renovate I-10 between U.S-54 and Loop 375, and then a fourth phase to eventually expand the highway in the segment spanning from Loop 375 southeast to Tornillo.
“There is no definitive schedule for the segment 4 project as of this date,” TxDOT said.
I-10 Expansion: How to Comment
Public comment on the planned reconstruction and expansion of Interstate 10 from Executive Center Boulevard to Copia Street is open through Oct. 14.
- Email: downtown10@txdot.gov
- Voicemail: 915-990-1440
- Mail: Downtown 10 Project, 17111 Preston Road, Suite 300, Dallas, Texas 75248.
- Information: Downtown 10
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