TXDOT will not close freeway in West El Paso during “tax-free” weekend

The Texas Department of Transportation told ABC-7 Monday it does not plan to shut down I-10 next weekend during the “tax-free holiday” in Texas.

“There will be a lot more folks on the road, its not a good time to have a closure,” TX-DOT District Engineer Bob Beliek said, “We will be closing on the 14th and that’s to take down the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ and that will be a far more difficult closure than the others.”

Tax-free weekend in Texas is August 5-7.

The scheduled closure of I-10 West between the Sunland Park exit ramp to the Sunland Park overpass was canceled this past weekend. The two left lanes on I-10 East between Sunland and the Buena Vista Bridge were also supposed to close.

Hours after work was supposed to begin, TxDOT tweeted: “Officers were unable to assist. For safety reasons, we will cancel today’s closure.”

“What happened was there were actually two closures proposed. One was a closure from 3 a.m. Sunday until 5 a.m. Monday. The other was a closure from 9 p.m. Sunday to 5 a.m. Monday. The second closure meant closing eastbound entirely, which required a detour and quite a number of police officers,” Bielek said.

Bielek took responsibility for miscommunication with El Paso Police. “We can’t really go out and set the traffic control without police protection, so that’s why we canceled the first closure,” he said, “The second closure was canceled because the subcontractor wasn’t ready.”

Bielek told ABC-7 the closure for the demolition of the “Bridge to Nowhere” will require a freeway closure from Executive to Sunland Park in both directions.

“Everybody will have to get off and get on Mesa,” he said.