Texas Transportation Commissioners Meeting
EL PASO, TX – The ABC-7 I-Team has uncovered a document suggesting that the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority (RMA) is considering adding toll lanes to Montana Avenue.
Members of the RMA will be in Austin Thursday to request leaders of the Texas Transportation Commission (TTC) to pay for a new study that would look at adding toll lanes to Montana Avenue. Members will also request more than a dozen other stretches of El Paso area highways be included in the study.
Some members of the RMA tell ABC-7 the segment of the avenue under consideration for toll lanes runs from its intersection with Joe Battle to Interstate 10 near the Spaghetti Bowl.
Many businesses currently line both sides of Montana, leaving no room to add the new toll lanes. The new lanes would have to be built as an elevated highway on top of the existing lanes on Montana, officials say. The existing lanes on Montana would still remain free to drive on.
“The bottom line is we can (alleviate) traffic and add mobility … that’s a positive thing,” says John Broaddus, with the RMA. “You’ll still have Montana as a non-tolled facility.”
AnABC-7 I-Team investigation uncovered a freeway planning map from the 1960’s.The map included theidea of turning Montana into a freeway without toll booths. However, since the funds are not available to fund a project of that magnitude, toll booths are the only viable funding option, say local officials.
Recently, local and state officials have considered placing toll booths on the Border Highway and the proposed Northeast Parkway highway. Shrinking highway budgets and increased traffic have led to the consideration of toll booths, they say. The funds gathered from the proposed toll booths would help pay for the construction of new highways and the renovation of existing ones. Only new lanes would be eligible for tolls.
Other stretches of highways that may be considered for toll booths are Loop 375 from the Zaragoza port of entry to U.S. 54 and the stretch of Interstate-10 from Transmountain to the New Mexico state line.
The TTC will decide on whether or not to fund the study Thursday. The entire meeting will be streamed live on KVIA.COM.
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Written and reported for broadcast by Martin Bartlett
Written for the web by Joe Villasana
