TxDOT Adds, Then Removes Third Lane On Montana

The Texas Department of Transportation recently completed a repaving project on a long stretch of Montana Avenue, from Yarbrough Drive to Loop 375 in far east El Paso. To alleviate congestion in that area, TxDOT officials also called for crews to add one lane of traffic to each direction of Montana, making it a six-lane highway.

Those lanes will be gone in a matter of days. TxDOT officials tell ABC-7, they did not get clearance from the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure the additional lanes kept the road in compliance with air quality guidelines.

“We made the argument that this was not putting us out of compliance, but unfortunately, we lost that argument,” said Eduardo Calvo, the director of planning for TxDOT.

Now, crews are dropping barrels along the outer lane of Montana for a nearly two-mile stretch as they prepare to make that additional lane into a shoulder. The transition from a traffic lane to a shoulder should be finished this week.

Calvo told ABC-7 the transportation department is working with the city’s Metropolitan Planning Organization on a plan that would bring back that lane and have it meet federal air quality requirements, among other needs.

“We’re probably going to need to add shoulders, and consider bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and so on,” Calvo said. “So it’s a more complete and more complicated and unfortunately, a more expensive project.”

Calvo said it could be months before the collaboration with the MPO brings those additional lanes to Montana, so he’s asking for drivers to be patient.