Will Spur 601 Become ‘Tollway’?

EL PASO, Texas — State leaders have been touting the new Spur 601 freeway as one of the very few new highways in the state that’s free to drive on, which is exactly why we were shocked to see it called the “El Paso Tollway.”

Spur 601 is not busy, but it is open, and it’s free to drive on, eventually all the way from Loop 375 to Patriot Freeway at Fred Wilson Avenue.

But while shooting video for a story on Friday, ABC-7 cameras caught the words “El Paso Tollway” written on every single girder used to hold up the Spur 601 overpass at Constitution Avenue.

Is El Paso’s newest freeway already poised to become El Paso’s newest tollway?

“We absolutely do not have plans to charge tolls to drive on Spur 601,” said TxDOT district engineer Chuck Berry. Berry started checking after ABC-7 brought it up. He said the innovative way the state financed the project got it built faster but also led to the confusion.

It’s called “pass through financing” or “pass through tolling.” TxDOT financed the project and they pay the toll, not the driver.

“One of our suppliers hears ‘toll’ and they automatically assumed we were going to charge the drivers the toll… But that’s not the case,” Berry said. He said tolls aren’t coming down the pike for Spur 601.

TxDOT will be talking about adding tolled express lanes on the Border Highway, though you would still be able to drive on the existing lanes for free.

They want the public’s input starting Thursday night at Riverside High School. The open house starts at 5:30 p.m. and public comments start at 6 p.m.