Free training for highway construction underway in the Borderland

With lots of construction signs and orange barrels all around the Borderland, there could be a little bit of hope for things moving faster – and getting more people able to do the jobs right here.

“This is my first time ever driving a skid-steer, ever actually sitting behind the wheel of these,” said Carla Gress.

Just last week, Gress was working at Wendy’s. But because of a highway construction training program brought to the Borderland in partnership with the University of Texas at Arlington, the Texas Department of Transportation and others, she and about 30 other Borderland residents are learning the skills necessary to handle some of the many jobs needed around the area.

“I think I’m doing okay,” Gress said. “I mean, I’m excited, but you know, I mean it’s my first time.”

Many of the students like Gress now using this heavy equipment had never even touched something like this before this class started. But now they’re learning skills on things like backhoes, skid-steers and excavators that they can use to further their careers.

“So what we’re doing is we’re taking 40 hours this week and giving them some ‘seat time’ is what we call it, on different pieces from the backhoe to the mini-excavator then also the skid steer,” said Instructor Joshua Gibbs. “We give them basic training, teach them basic functions. We can’t go too fast with them based on their experience, right? Our main thing here is safety. So we want to give them the normal operations of the equipment. And hopefully they can take this opportunity and take it into the construction field.”

And there are a lot of opportunities around and coming up in the near future, estimated to top a billion dollars just in the El Paso region alone.

“There’s just no shortage of highway construction jobs coming up,” said TXDoT Spokeswoman Jennifer Wright. “This is really going to be a big economic driver for El Paso, the fact that TXDoT is getting additional funding over the next several years to engage in building up the infrastructure around the state. There’s going to be a need for a long time in the future.”

And some of that need could be filled by these students, like Isaac Heredia who saw the original ABC-7 report about this program coming and applied.

“I found out through your piece on ABC-7 at noon. I was there at home, eating lunch and saw your story come out. And as a result, I applied within 30 minutes and tried to get in this program as fast as possible.”

The program doesn’t stop with this training either. Plans are in place to bring the program back to El Paso next year. There will also be a job fair with local contractors encourages to participate Friday, Sept. 30 from 1 – 4 pm at EPCC Administrative Building A at 9050 Viscount Drive. For more information, you can email jwillingham@uta.edu.