TRAFFIC ALERT: TxDOT closes freeway at I-10 East & N. Mesa for 27 hours
The Texas Department of Transportation closed I-10 East in West El Paso Sunday morning.
“Twenty-seven hours is an aggressive timeframe for work that could easily take multiple days,” Project Engineer Tim Twomey said in a news release, “This consolidated timeframe is an effort to mitigate impact to motorists and businesses.”
The following freeway closures will go into effect starting at 3 a.m. Sunday, March 12, 2017. The freeway will re-open at 6 a.m. on Monday, March 13.
I-10 Eastbound will be completely closed after Redd Road.
Detour: Traffic on I-10 East will detour at the Redd Road Exit (Exit 9) and onto Doniphan Drive (SH 20). Traffic will be able to re-enter I-10 East from Sunland Park Drive. Follow the detour signs in place.
North Mesa Street (SH 20) in both directions will be completely closed at the I-10 Overpass.
Detour: Follow the detour signs in place.
South Desert Boulevard frontage road will be closed to through traffic between Redd Road and Thorn Avenue, and completely closed to all traffic after Thorn Avenue.
Detour: Traffic will detour onto Doniphan Drive (SH 20). Follow the detour signs in place.
Jose Reyes is the manager of the Village Inn on N. Mesa, right before I-10. He said business has been steadily decreasing ever since the GO-10 Project began in 2015.
“We’re expecting it to slowdown pretty much all day because of the 27 hour [closure],” Reyes said. “It will affect us and bring our sales pretty down low.”
He estimates they’ve lost about 200 customers per day on average. He said that’s about a 20-percent loss.
“From the past few years, it’s been hard to bring more business because of the construction,” Reyes said. “We do hear [complaints] from customers everyday, morning and night.”
Bob Bielek, TxDOT’s El Paso district engineer, said it’s a big step forward for the GO-10 Project.
“What we’ll be doing this weekend is moving traffic from the eastbound lanes onto that new center section, and we’ll be demolishing the old eastbound bridge at the same time,” Bielek said.
Bielek’s advice for drivers is simple.
“If you’re going through there, or if you have to go through that area, stay on Doniphan. Use Transmountain and Resler,” Bielek said. “Stay North of I-10 and try not to go through that area. That will allow us just to handle the through traffic. The through traffic won’t be that bad of a detour.”
Tips for beating traffic:
Motorists should avoid the intersection on March 12 by using alternate routes such as Transmountain Road (Loop 375), Doniphan Drive (SH 20) and Paisano Drive (US 85).
During this 27-hour closure on Sunday, March 12, crews will be re-striping I-10 Eastbound lanes and demolishing the existing I-10 Eastbound structure.
By the morning of Monday, March 13, I-10 eastbound traffic will be driving on the new median of the I-10 Overpass and the I-10 eastbound bridge structure will be gone, TxDOT said.
