Saturday freeway closure affects drivers and businesses

west side causes major traffic congestion. txdot shutdown a 3 mile stretch of the freeway from executive center to sunland park. the closure was supposed to happen on sunday– but was moved to today, per new mexico governor susana martinez’s request. our crews came across traffic backed up for miles and some very frustrated drivers. abc-7’s jerry najera is live with the story … evan josie the closure today had a lot of drivers upset. some people i spoke with tell me they were stuck on mesa on for an hour to an hour an a half and businesess were also affected. “well this is a pain in the butt” “this is ridiculou traffic was at a crawl and drivers frustrated with the closure sounded off “they got paisano close they got the freeway closed mesa is the only way to go it’s saturday a work day a day when everyone is trying to get things done” “they shouldn’t do this on th weekends. it’s totally an inconvenience for people trying to get through” i-1 was closed for a three mile stretch but the affects of the closure spanned for miles. even transmountain road got backed up with traffic. the closure was slated for sunday but a request came from new mexico governor susana martinez. her office says the request was made to avoid a “traffi nightmare” for sunland park’s fiesta del sol celebration. “the should get a vote before they do this kind of stuff” and with all the traffic stuck on mesa could businesses stand to see more customers? “i saw a pickup” nonas manager joseph arziaga feels a few customers dropped in to avoid the traffic. “we have deals and everything like that as far as our march madness deals so i guess they see it and they drop by” but not every business saw the same affect. “i actually affected us in a number of ways” “a lot of ou employees were showing up late because of the traffic” angry ow manager hector hernandez says the restaurant might of lost some customers because drivers try to avoid the area all together. “it wasn’t picking up til afternoon when the roads were being opened again so it definitely affected us for lunch” a el paso electric spokesman says there isn’t any major road closures scheduled but there is a possibility additional closures may be needed as the texas department of transportation projects progress. jerry, thank you. taking a