César Chávez Express Toll Lanes (Removal), El Paso, Texas

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The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority (CRRMA) have developed the Loop 375, César Chávez-Border Highway Managed Lanes Project, including tolled managed lanes on Loop 375 from US 54 to Zaragoza Road in El Paso County (César Chávez Express Toll Lanes), under the jurisdictional limits of the CRRMA. The project included rehabilitation of the four existing lanes of Loop 375 from US 54 to Zaragoza Road, as well as construction of two new tolled managed lanes along a 9-mile corridor. After rehabilitation, the two existing lanes in each direction remained non-tolled. The new managed lanes increased the capacity of the existing facility to 6 lanes. This express lane project near the border with Mexico, let out by TxDOT in FY 2011, was completed and opened to traffic in January 2014, due to a push by state transportation officials to provide motorists a way to bypass heavy traffic on Interstate 10. The CRRMA partnered with North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) for toll collection via a payday lender to help collect cash for tags. The express lanes followed a fixed time-of-day schedule for congestion pricing, allowing no free or discounted access for high occupancy vehicles (HOVs). Starting in October 2015, the CRRMA implemented a Toll Waiver Program on the César Chávez Express Toll Lanes for disabled veterans and recipients of the Purple Heart, Medal of Honor, or Legion of Valor. In August 2017, the commission voted unanimously to make the highway a non-toll road beginning Sept. 1. The tolls were suspended, with a plan that any debt created through the operations and maintenance of the César Chávez Express toll lanes would be shifted over to the Border West Expressway project. TxDOT takes over operations and maintenance.

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