BRAC Spurs New Freeway

Pass-through financing delivers for El Paso project

By Mary Lou Jay

The Base Realignment and Closure process that will bring more than 50,000 soldiers and dependents to the U.S. Army’s Fort Bliss in El Paso has spurred an innovative road construction project in the area.

The project involves construction of new location roadways, interchanges, tie-ins, entrance/exit ramps, and reconstruction of existing roadways from U.S. 54 to the Purple Heart Memorial Freeway.

Using TxDOT’s pass-through financing method, civil construction contractor J. D. Abrams of Austin has arranged the financing for and is designing and building the new Spur 601 on the city’s eastern side. The road will connect U.S. 54 to the Purple Heart Memorial Highway (Loop 375), improving access to Fort Bliss and Biggs Army Airfield.

This is the first time that TxDOT has signed a pass-through financing deal with a private developer.

“The Army base wanted to move its ingress point and put it on a major thoroughfare so that people could access it from the Inner Loop and from U.S. 54,” says David Head, TxDOT project manager. “TxDOT and the city had been looking at that connection, but the money wasn’t there.”

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J. D. Abrams developed the unsolicited design-build proposal for a 7.5-mi, six-lane highway because of its strong ties to the region, says Bill Burnett, the company’s vice president for project development. “We are active not just with TxDOT but also with the Army Corps of Engineers,” he adds. “We are currently doing about $160 million of work on the base.”

With reductions of TxDOT’s highway program in the El Paso district, the company also wanted to provide work for its 300 area employees.

No tolls for motorists Spur 601 will cost $367 million. TxDOT will provide $55 million during the construction phase: $45 million in federal highway funds and $10 million from the city-owned El Paso International Airport, which is adjacent to Fort Bliss. Abrams worked with the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority, a new entity set up to develop regional transportation projects, to sell bonds to finance the remainder.

As Abrams completes road segments, TxDOT will make payments to the RMA based on traffic volumes; the more vehicles using the road, the faster the payback. The money from TxDOT funds will go to retiring the bond debt.

TxDOT will make payments for 10 years after road completion, with contributions capped at $35 million per year.

Motorists will not have to pay tolls to use the road.

The U.S. Army and the city of El Paso have donated some of the land for the West Texas road project.

J. D. Abrams proposed the Spur 601 project to the Texas Transportation Commission in December 2005, but it took a full year to win approval. The parties signed a formal agreement in May 2007.

The Federal Highway Department, which provided the state’s share of the funds, gave its consent in August 2007. Design began immediately, with construction starting in December.

Construction will take place in phases with a 42-month total schedule. Segment A1, opening in August, will extend and reconfigure two city streets, Global Reach and Walter Jones Boulevard, to connect to the base.

The second phase, to be ready in May 2009, will encompass 2.5 mi of the Spur, from its intersection with Global Reach to Loop 375. The third phase, scheduled for completion in November 2009, will include the eastbound lanes of the new freeway from Airport Road to Global Reach.

The remainder of the project should be finished in January 2011.

A rendering shows the design of El Paso’s Spur 601.

A project for El Paso The complex project involves many different entities. The U.S. Army and the city have donated land for the project, but J.D. Abrams is still negotiating with the El Paso Public Service Board, the Humane Society of El Paso and the Union Pacific Railroad for the necessary rights-of-way. In one 2-mi segment, J.D. Abrams will have to coordinate its efforts with 17 different utility owners.

Abrams is building two other projects near the spur – a new intersection at Fred Wilson Avenue, Walter Jones Boulevard and Airport Road and the addition of two lanes to U.S. 54. Abrams and TxDOT have coordinated this work to accommodate and complement the construction of Spur 601.

The cooperation between all the involved parties has been outstanding, Burnett says. “This isn’t an Abrams project, it’s not a TxDOT project, not an Army project,” he adds. “Everybody has the attitude that this is an El Paso project, and everybody always puts what’s best for the project first.”

Key Players

Spur 601 Project Team
Owner: TxDOT
Developer/ Contractor: J.D. Abrams, Austin
Lead Designer: URS, San Francisco
Assistant Designers: KBR, Houston; Moreno Cardenas Inc., El Paso; Parkhill Smith and Cooper Inc., Lubbock

SIDEBAR

Relief for Horizon Interchange

Horizon Interchange project, (courtesy of El Paso District, TxDOT)

As the city of El Paso grows, so do its suburbs. TxDOT and J.D. Abrams are currently building another project that will bring relief to the busy interchange of Horizon Boulevard and Interstate 10 just a few miles outside the city limits.

Truck stops at three corners of the interchange and a fast-food restaurant at the fourth make travel through the intersection difficult.

"The problems are not just with congestion but also with safety because of the slower trucks merging with passenger vehicles," says Mark Longenbaugh, director for transportation planning and development for TxDOT in El Paso.

TxDOT is widening the Horizon Boulevard Bridge over IH-10 to three lanes in each direction and adding two lanes to the intersection approaches. New U-turn structures along the east and west sides of the bridge will remove from the intersection the left turns made by vehicles traveling from the frontage road on one side of IH-10 to the frontage road on the opposite side.

Horizon Interchange project, (courtesy of El Paso District, TxDOT)

"We've also moved the ramps back from the interchange so the trucks would have more space to get across the frontage road in order to access the truck stops," Longenbaugh says.

In a first for the El Paso area, the frontage roads will continue underneath the Horizon Boulevard Bridge, so that traffic can continue to travel on the frontage road without passing through the Horizon Boulevard intersection.

The $22 million project began in July and should be completed in March.