‘Mesa Park Interchange’ construction expected to begin in 2017, wrap up in Spring 2018

Highway construction for the new Mesa Park Interchange will begin in 2017 and is expected to wrap up in the Spring of 2018, said Jennifer Wright, a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of Transportation.

Drivers in West El Paso have endured detours, orange barrels, construction and plenty of traffic as a result of what seems to be never-ending construction as a result of the GO 10 project. The Executive Center Boulevard freeway on-ramps will be closed indefinitely, Wright added.

The $158 million freeway project stretches from Executive Center Boulevard to Mesa Street & I-10 on the West Side. “It’s going to have connector (lanes) from Executive to Mesa Park,” Wright said.

In the past, the I-10 West on ramp at Executive would allow drivers to directly enter the freeway’s westbound lanes. After the Go 10 project is complete, the on-ramp will disappear and drivers will instead drive onto a frontage road to the Mesa Park Interchange. Once drivers pass the interchange at the site of the Montecillo Development, the frontage road will allow them to merge onto I-10 west. Developers would have to build Mesa Park Drive, Wright added.

Construction along Sunland Park Drive will cause the biggest disruption to traffic in 2017, Wright said. Crews are building a southbound frontage road from Sunland Park Drive to eastbound “distributor lanes” along I-10 East. Crews are also building new on and off ramps and a new eastbound and westbound connector distributor lanes. “That won’t be happening until 2018,” Wright said.

A new Resler Drive interchange will also be built in 2017. Wright told ABC-7 drivers will still be able to use the existing interchange during the construction of the new new interchange.

Mesa Street at I-10 will also undergo construction. It will include new on ramps and u-turn lanes. Wright tells ABC-7 the construction will be completed in three phases beginning in 2017. A completion date has not been set. Wright says it’s all dependent on the availability of materials needed for the project.

“(Crews) are going at a tremendous pace so you’ll be seeing a lot of work being done,” Wright said, “They are trying to limit their closures to off-peak hours and night time and the major closures tend to be on the weekends and on Sundays when there’s the least amount of traffic so they are doing their best to stay out of the public’s way.”