Old Hueco Tanks Road project gets green light to start construction soon

Another big road improvement project is ready to begin in the eastern parts of El Paso County. In the case of Old Hueco Tanks Road, there are parts where there wasn’t even much of a road to begin with.

“We have completed the procurement process for the Old Hueco Tanks Road,” said Raymond Telles, executive director for the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority. “In effect, Old Hueco Tanks Road is really the extension of Eastlake (Boulevard) from I-10 heading southbound.”

As part of El Paso County’s efforts to bring more infrastructure to the unincorporated but rapidly growing parts of the county, county commissioners authorized a set of road improvement projects.

“We’ve got various agreements with the county of El Paso whereby we’re using their vehicle registration fee funds to develop a whole slate of projects for them,” Telles said. “And one of those projects is specifically Old Hueco Tanks. We’re also in coordination with the city of Socorro because this roadway goes right into their community.”

Old Hueco Tanks Road is next up, with a $7.5 million construction contract awarded to International Eagle Enterprises. The total project budget is $9.3 million. It’s expected to take about a year to build the new four lane divided road, including sidewalks, lighting and bike lanes, where there was limited or even no roadway before.

“This was really a joint effort also,” Telles said. “TXDOT actually competed the design work for this project. So we took TXDOT’s designs, we put them out on the street, and now we have as of today selected the lowest responsible bidder to actually construct the project, using the county funds. And then I mentioned Socorro actually competed the right-of-way acquisition and the utility relocation. So you see four partners coming together to complete one roadway.”