CAMPAIGN STATUS: Waiting for final decision DECISION HOLDER: Texas Department of Transportation
The real monster isn’t under your bed... It’s wasting $1.3 billion of our money widening the I-10.
El Paso: Say NO to the widening of I-10 Downtown and YES to fixing the freeway instead.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is pushing forward with a massive project to widen I-10 from Executive Center to Copia Street.
They claim it will fix the issue of traffic congestion, but decades of evidence show that adding more lanes doesn't work; in fact, it creates more traffic, more pollution, more flooding, and more sprawl without solving congestion.
1. This project will displace families, businesses, and community landmarks, destroying parts of neighborhoods along the freeway.
2. It will increase air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, heat, and flooding.
3. It will divert billions of taxpayer dollars away from sustainable alternatives like public transit, pedestrian safety, and neighborhood projects like trees, irrigation canals, and weatherization.
We submitted over 100 public comments to the Texas Department of Transportation
Our campaign against the I-10 Downtown expansion was featured on El Paso Times.
Micheal E. P. Davis, founder and chairman of the Board of Eastside-Central Coalition, addresses the media during a press conference on the opposition to the expansion of I-10 in El Paso, Texas, 2025.
The Eastside Central Coalition is leading the efforts of the El Paso Streets Coalition and many El Paso community groups who oppose adding more lanes to I-10 (widening or expanding).
Sembrando Esperanza Coalition members (neighborhood-based organizations) do NOT want the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) to spend $1.3 billion of our state dollars to add more lanes to I-10 from Copia Street to Executive Center Boulevard.
The construction of the downtown area alone will cost half a billion dollars.
In addition, the Paso del Norte Community Foundation (PDNCF)/Paso del Norte Health Foundation (PDNHF) is fundraising with both public and private money for the $412 million deck park (aka “deck plaza”) that will go over the freeway in the downtown area. The City is considering contributing $35 million. The County has contributed $1 million. The state delegation (State Senator Blanco and the state reps)gave $10 million, and PDNCF has asked TXDOT for another $10 million. U.S. Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (Dist. 16) has also requested $5 million of federal funding for the deck park.
So far, none of these entities have offered any money for environmental projects in the Sembrando Esperanza Coalition neighborhoods, which were among the neighborhoods that were impacted by I-10’s displacement of thousands of Black and Brown families and vibrant businesses in the 1950s and 60s.
Today, the neighborhoods closest to I-10, including Sembrando Esperanza neighborhoods, face some of the worst levels of pollution, heat, dust and flood risk. Widening I-10 will only worsen these injustices.
📣 Speak up against the widening of I-10 Downtown!
The lanes of the I-10 at Piedras going westbound flooded on August 30, 2024, in El Paso, Texas. Source: Texas Department of Public Transportation
Ask TXDOT to choose the “No Build” option, which means they will not add more lanes and will instead improve the highway, including addressing flooding.
Map of the location where the Borderland Expressway will be built in El Paso, Texas. Source: Texas Department of Public Transportation
Ask TXDOT to focus on completing the Borderland Expressway (Northeast Bypass) instead of I-10 Downtown. In TXDOT’s own words, "The proposed Borderland Expressway would complete a route around the northeast side of El Paso suitable for truck and other through traffic, diverting traffic from the city center." The Borderland Expressway will relocate semis from I-10, meaning there will be even less congestion than there is now and even less need to add lanes to I-10.
The public transportation system in El Paso could be improved and expanded to accommodate the needs of the community and reduce pollution. Credit: KFOX 14
Ask TXDOT to invest in intentional and effective public transportation, especially for the largest employers and traffic magnets, like UTEP, EPCC, EPISD, SISD, YISD, Fort Bliss, El Paso Electric, and others. Nearly 30 years ago, TXDOT promised to help us get clean air by removing cars from the highways through public transportation. Instead, it keeps building highways, attracting more cars and semis, benefiting only the fossil fuel industry (gasoline and diesel producers) and contractors who get these projects.
Photograph of Downtown El Paso in 1959, before the land was cleared for Interstate 10. Source: Rick Meza, El Paso Museum of History
Ask TXDOT to stop environmental racism and classism. We need to undo the injustices of racist and classist highway projects, not make them worse.
📣 Here are 3 different ways in which we submitted comments to TXDOT:
Download the TXDOT I-10 Downtown El Paso Case Public Comment Form👇
1. 📧 Email your comment directly or fill out TXDOT’s online form here: Please copy and paste the following points into an email or TXDOTs online form. Choose all the points you agree with and add more. Add your name, address, and email at the bottom.
✅ I support the “No Build” option, which includes improvements to maintain a state of good repair and promote safety and efficient operations without expanding the highway.
✅ I support completing the Borderland Expressway (Northeast Bypass) before this Downtown 10 Project because that would accommodate and remove semis from I-10, reducing congestion and pollution on I-10 and making its expansion even more unnecessary.
✅ I support relieving congestion in the corridor by improving public transportation.
✅ The expansion of I-10 is unnecessary.
✅ The expansion of I-10 is detrimental to our health, environment, and history.
✅ I-10 displaced thousands of Black and Brown families and vibrant businesses in the 1950s and 60s. Today, the neighborhoods closest to I-10 are some of the most polluted and hottest. Widening I-10 will only worsen these injustices.
NAME:
ADDRESS:
EMAIL:
Once you are done, email your comments to: Downtown10@txdot.gov with the subject line “TXDOT’s Downtown 10 Project”.
2. 🖨️ Download, print, complete, and email or mail the form to TXDOT.
TXDOT's address:
Downtown 10 Project
17111 Preston Road, Suite 300
Dallas, Texas
752483
3. 📄 Get a paper form (or multiple forms for your neighbors, friends, and family) and email us at info@sembrandoesperanza915.org. Share this information with your circle of friends!
The Sembrando Esperanza Coalition held a community forum on the impact of I-10 on the health & environment of El Pasoans on Saturday, October 11th, 2025.
Help the cause by donating!
If you can, please donate towards the expert hired by the Eastside Central Coalition. Contributions can be made on the Eastside Central Coalition’s website.
Highways displace and destroy communities and small businesses. They perpetuate the legacy of segregation by class and race, while polluting our air and exposing us to more heat, dust, and floods. We don't need more highway lanes.
We need economic and environmental justice. Sembrando Esperanza Coalition members oppose the widening of I-10 from Copia to Executive and the Deck Park.
