Crosswalk improvements will soon be made to busy Cincy district intersections

EL PASO, Texas -- In just a few weeks, the Texas Dept. of Transportation will start making improvements on the crosswalks at the busy intersections of Cincinnati and Baltimore along Mesa Street in west El Paso.

These improvements are timely after a pedestrian was hit in a crosswalk by an alleged drunk driver on the night of Oct. 3 at the intersection of Cincinnati and Mesa streets.

The improvements that will soon be made are similar to the ones made along Dyer Street between Flory and Tyler avenues to help the pedestrian situation in northeast El Paso.

Raised medians, pedestrian railing along the median and curb line to direct traffic to crosswalks, in-pavement lighting for the crosswalks, and curb line realignment to shorten crosswalk length will be implemented along Mesa as soon as TxDOT crews finish their work at Copia and Dyer.

The current situation at the intersections in the Cincinnati Entertainment District is not so good.

"Well every time I drive by they are jaywalking. Every once in a while they do use the crosswalk, but not that often at all - and its really hard as a driver because if it's at night there's not enough lights so you don't always see them," said Joshua Deese, an El Paso motorist.

UTEP students who visit the Cincinnati district bars told ABC-7 that the crosswalk traffic situation at night is "chaotic" and that many times "they don't even use crosswalks."

As soon as those improvements are made, the intersections of Cincinnati/Mesa and Baltimore/Mesa should be a lot safer to cross.