Eroding Arroyo Puts Fire Station Opening On Hold

Fire Station #31 in West El Paso appears complete, but four months after the doors were meant to open the building remains vacant.

As early as Tuesday morning, the city of El Paso website said the station would be completed by December 2011. After ABC-7 questioned the city about the website, the date was updated with a prospective finish date in September.

According to El Paso city engineer Alan Shubert, the problem is that ground broke on the project before anyone realized an arroyo behind the fire station had eroded into the city property. Once the ground was broke there was no going back because federal funds were subsidizing a portion of the $2.7 million project, and turning back risked losing the funding due to an expiration date.

?We didn?t have the option to shut the project down until we fixed the arroyo, we would have stood to lose the stimulus funding,? said Shubert.

Instead the project continued, and now the building remains vacant while contractors bid on the project with prospective plans to fix the 60-foot deep arroyo, which stands mere feet from where fire trucks need to drive

While a final plan isn?t in place, it?s believed that the ultimate solution will be to backfill the arroyo, burying pipes to carry drain water. The main issue currently is that a retaining wall was washed away at some point in time, presumably during Storm 2006.

?I don?t know if I?d call it a mistake,? said Shubert. ?Clearly this isn?t ideal; you wouldn?t walk out there and say this is an ideal spot for a fire station by a 60-foot arroyo there.?

El Paso Fire Chief Otto Drozd said the project was hatched out of a need. The plan had been in place for many years, as several other fire departments remain in the planning stage to this day, but was moved because of the available stimulus dollars and the growth in West El Paso.

?We cover the entire area with the resources we have, but what this station will do is give us the capacity to cover the growth that is catching up out there,? said Drozd.

Until the arroyo is backfilled, or a plan is put in place that would prevent a collapse, Fire Station 31 will remain untouched. Shubert said it?s not a great situation, but that it?s the city?s only option.

?Could there have been a better site?? questioned Shubert. ?Certainly, but this site is what we had so that is where we are.?