New highway to be built in northeast El Paso

The Texas Department of Transportation has plans to build a new highway in northeast El Paso.

Officials said the Northeast Parkway will help created an alternate route to get drivers from east to west El Paso and vice versa.

The highway would split at Loop 375 just before Railroad Dr. and continue for 10 miles to Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., giving drivers access to Interstate 10 through New Mexico highways 213 and 404.

“The Northeast Parkway is a bypass for trucks and other thru-traffic and vehicles that don’t want to go through downtown El Paso, they can use it (Northeast Parkway) to go around,” said Gus Sanchez, a TxDOT project manager.

Sanchez said the highway is to also help 18-wheeler trucks avoid Transmountain Rd. because it is a challenging trek for many drivers.

The Northeast Parkway is proposed to be a four-lane highway that will be built in two phases with a price tag of $320 million. Sanchez said the highway could be built in the next five to ten years.

Funding has not been approved, but documents related to an environmental study should be approved in the near future.

According to the TxDOT an environmental assessment was done to document “existing social, economic and environmental conditions, assesses impacts of the proposed improvements and identifies potential mitigation.”

“This project has been part of our long term planning process, it’s been in our books for many years,” Sanchez said.

TxDOT is hosting a public meeting Thursday, July 26 from 5 p.m. to 7 .m. at Tom Lea Elementary School, located at 4851 Marcus Uribe Dr.