As the city of El Paso grows, so do its suburbs. TxDOT and J.D. Abrams are currently building another project that will bring relief to the busy interchange of Horizon Boulevard and Interstate 10 just a few miles outside the city limits.
Truck stops at three corners of the interchange and a fast-food restaurant at the fourth make travel through the intersection difficult.
“The problems are not just with congestion but also with safety because of the slower trucks merging with passenger vehicles,” says Mark Longenbaugh, director for transportation planning and development for TxDOT in El Paso.
TxDOT is widening the Horizon Boulevard Bridge over IH-10 to three lanes in each direction and adding two lanes to the intersection approaches. New U-turn structures along the east and west sides of the bridge will remove from the intersection the left turns made by vehicles traveling from the frontage road on one side of IH-10 to the frontage road on the opposite side.
“We’ve also moved the ramps back from the interchange so the trucks would have more space to get across the frontage road in order to access the truck stops.” Longenbaugh says.
In a first for the El Paso area, the frontage roads will continue underneath the Horizon Boulevard Bridge, so that traffic can continue to travel on the frontage road without passing through the Horizon Boulevard intersection.
The $22 million project began in July and should be completed in March.