EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The El Paso Council will discuss and vote on Tuesday, Jan. 30 whether Mayor Oscar Leeser will send a letter to the U.S General Services Administration expressing the City’s preference to remove commercial truck traffic from the Bridge of the Americas Land Port of Entry and move forward with the BOTA upgrade project.
GSA awarded a nearly $10 million contract on Dec. 4 to Turner and Townsend Heery to provide professional services and help develop proposals for the project.
Members of the community who are against the project say the money was intended to renovate the bridge, not expand it.
Cemelli De Aztlan, a community organizer with Familias Unidas del Chamizal, said she hopes GSA will listen to the City and the area’s residents who are suffering health-wise, calling the constant pollution from the diesel vehicles an “environmental injustice.”
“Cancer, brain, blood, heart disease, all of these essential organs are being contaminated by the toxic air these trucks are producing. There is room on other bridges for those trucks to pass. This is the only bridge, the only international port of entry in the neighborhood. It’s time to get the trucks out,” she said.
Feedback from the public prompted GSA to hold a public scoping meeting for the project in mid-December and it has extended the public comment period to 5 p.m. CST Friday Feb. 23.
City Council will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30.
KTSM 9 News will update this story with their decision.
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