TxDOT Considering Turning I-10 Emergency Shoulders Into Traffic Lanes

April Gomez knows east El Paso traffic gridlock can be enough to make someone just wanna stay home.

“It’s pretty bad,” she told ABC-7 as she pulled up to a department store off Zaragoza. “And it gets really bad on Fridays.”

Three heavily-trafficked eastside spots landed on this year’s list of the Texas Department of Transportation’s ‘100 Most Congested Roadways.’

#100: Interstate 10 from the Spaghetti Bowl to Loop 375

#98: Lee Trevino from Montana to I-10

#52: Zaragoza from Sun Fire Blvd. to I-10

El Paso TxDOT Engineer Edgar Fino told ABC-7 the department is looking into adding more turning lanes along Zaragoza – a State road – and working with the city of El Paso to add them along Lee Trevino.

As for I-10, Fino said the fix could involving converting the inside emergency shoulders of the freeway into regular traffic lanes.

“We’d still have the outside shoulder in regards to stranded motorists or broken-down vehicles,” he said.

Fino added the plan is still being studied for feasibility and safety and would require funding TxDOT does not have at the moment.

He also said the two planned toll lanes along the Border Highway and the so-called ‘Spaghetti Bowl 2’ connecting Loop 375 to I-10 would also help relieve eastside traffic congestion.

To view TxDOT’s list of ‘Most Congested Roadways,’ click the link below.

http://www.dot.state.tx.us/news/038-2010.htm