El Paso’s new freeway beautification objects gets tagged

this holiday weekend. those who came through the borderland may have noticed the latest improvements as part of a beautification project at the spaghetti bowl. abc-7’s darren hunt is live from central el paso with the ugly truth about the latest attempt to beautify our city. darren. rick and maria, this four-phase project will total nearly 20 million dollars in improvements once its completed. the latest phase is hoisting six of these towers into place around the interchange … but with upgrades like this sometimes comes graffiti like that! “it’s really changed a lot … “it has, it has.” bob bielek i the district engineer for txdot. and he’s quite proud of the millions in improvements his agency is doing as part of the i-10 and us-54 interchange beautification. “it takes the industrial look away from el paso … makes the look of el paso match the people of el paso, very welcoming and friendly.” bielek sai between 220 and 250- thousand drivers pass through the area every day. the latest additions are these massive towers that many have been noticing. “what do you guys think of em?” “oh, i think it’s amazing.” “the stars on top are reminscen of the star on the mountain here in el paso … these will be filled with cut glass and luminated from within … they will stand on these huge pedestals about 70 to 100 feet in the air.” “have you seen em as you’re driving through here?” “yes! “what do you think? “they’re beautiful. “did you guys catch the tagging across the way that someone did?” “oh gosh!” ron saenz, who ha lived in the neighborhood for almost 40 years, said the graffiti popped up in just the past couple of days. “what do you think of that? “disgusting … that’s all i ca say … darn right disgusting.” even relatively minor graffiti offenses in texas can become felonies if the damage exceeds 15- hundred dollars. its punishable by 180 days to 2 years in a state prison and a fine of up to 10,000 dollars. “something has got to be done about this … its been a problem for years now … ” “what do you think of the improvements?” “i think its great, but the graffiti, i dunno, its sickening, all i can tell you.” “ruins it doesn’t it? “it sure does.” to report graffiti, call the city information line at 3-1-1. bielek said the “it sure does.” to report graffiti, call the city information line at 3-1-1. bielek said the final phase, expected to be completed by the fall, is installing new lighting that will illuminate the entire spaghetti bowl. perhaps that will help keep graffiti like this from ever happening again. rick and maria. we’re learning new information about the bankruptcy filing by the el paso