El Paso is getting another freeway.

Montana Avenue in East El Paso will become a six-lane freeway with frontage roads in a two- or three-phase project with an estimated cost of more than $370 million.

The entire freeway will eventually run from Yarbrough/Global Reach drives to Zaragoza Road. But the first phase, which is expected to begin construction in March, will run from Yarbrough/Global Reach to Tierra Este Road.

The first phase is expected to be completed in summer 2022.

The Texas Department of Transportation in October awarded a $121.7 million construction contract to Jordan Foster Construction, an El Paso-based general contractor, for the first phase.

More: TxDOT officials say Downtown El Paso bridges need to be replaced

Existing Montana lanes will be used during construction of the middle, freeway lanes, which should help traffic flow during construction, said Bob Bielek, El Paso district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation.

The second phase, estimated to cost $248.5 million, will go from Tierra Este to Zaragoza. No timeline for that phase has been determined because funding will have to be secured first.

Freeway needs to handle increasing traffic

"The need for this project was established about four years ago" because of the growing amount of traffic on Montana, Bielek said.

The stretch of Montana from Yarbough/Global Reach to Zaragoza has an average daily traffic count of more than 40,000 vehicles, and projections show the traffic could increase to a daily average of 100,000 vehicles by 2040, or 21 years from now, Bielek said.

"It's a lot of traffic for a six-lane arterial" road, Bielek said.

A lot of new housing and other development has occurred on the far East Side and that's put more traffic on Montana than was previously forecast, he said.

The new William Beaumont Army Medical Center, still under construction, and a proposed new El Paso Community College campus next to the hospital, both near Montana and Joe Battle Boulevard, also will add more traffic in the area, he noted

In the project's first phase, on- and off-ramps will begin shortly after the Yarbrough/Global Reach intersection, and the six-lane freeway will begin just before Lee Treviño Drive. The middle of Montana will have large empty spaces before the freeway actually begins. Those open areas, which eventually will be landscaped, will be part of transitioning Montana from a regular street to the new freeway, said Eddie Valtier, director of transportation planning and development for TxDOT's El Paso district.

Paths to ease use by pedestrians, bicyclists

The gateways, which will have three lanes on each side of the freeway, will make Montana more pedestrian and bicyclist friendly, Bielek said. They will include paths for pedestrians and bicyclists to share, as well as stops for the Sun Metro Brio Rapid Transit System, which will be added to Montana in the future.

Overpasses at major intersections will be part of the first phase.

The second or third phase, depending on funding, will include adding flyover connector bridges at Global Reach and Loop 375 to connect those thoroughfares directly to the Montana freeway. The interchange at Loop 375 and Montana will become a miniversion of the Spaghetti Bowl on Interstate 10 in Central El Paso.

More: TxDoT's $158M expansion project named 'Go 10'

Global Reach eventually will be turned into an expressway with the flyover bridge connections allowing vehicles to go directly from Global Reach to Montana without stoplights, Bielek said.

Phase one won't require much land acquisition, Bielek said. Fort Bliss and the Texas General Land Office are providing land along the northern portion of Montana for the first phase, he said. Also, a piece of land near Joe Battle Boulevard will be bought from River Oaks Properties, a large El Paso shopping center developer, he said.

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More properties will need to be bought for the second phase, which is why that phase will cost more than the first phase, Bielek said.

When the second phase gets funded, then the property acquisitions will be done, he said.

Montana west of Global Reach/Yarbrough and into the heart of the city, will "stay basically as it is now," Bielek said.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter.

I-10 Connect project

Sundt Construction, a large general contractor based in Tucson, recently was awarded a $96 million contract from the Texas Department of Transportation to build ramps, auxiliary lanes and direct bridge connectors between Interstate 10, U.S. Highway 54, the Bridge of the Americas, and the César Chávez Border Highway, TxDOT and Sundt recently announced.

The project includes building 16 new bridges, demolishing 12 existing bridges, installing retaining walls, installing an intelligent transportation system, and erecting large overhead sign structures, according to Sundt officials.

Sixteen existing bridge columns, which contain murals painted over the years, will be demolished in Lincoln Park, underneath the Spaghetti Bowl in Central El Paso, as part of the project. TxDOT has agreed to provide highway columns in the new project for the Lincoln Park Conservation Committee to paint new murals.

Work is expected to begin in February, with construction projected to be completed in mid-2020.

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