Metropolitan Planning Organization 10-23-26

The El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Policy Board meeting on October 23, 2026, addressed transportation project programming and regional border-crossing planning. The board considered an FY 2027 amendment to the Southern Park Drive/Futurity intersection reconstruction project to add federal Community Project Funding; the amount and revised total project cost are garbled in the transcript. It also approved an amendment to the 2027–2030 Transportation Improvement Program for the PIA Drain shared-use path, updating project limits to reflect Vocational Drive’s name change to Opportunity Drive. The path amendment passed unanimously. The board also approved the September meeting minutes unanimously; the transcript does not clearly capture the vote on the Southern Park Drive amendment or the proposed 2027 meeting schedule.

The main discussion was a feasibility study of traffic impacts and potential improvements associated with the Border Highway Connector. The study is funded by $2 million obtained from the New Mexico Legislature and examines traffic scenarios, including the planned closure of commercial lanes at the Bridge of the Americas, to identify affected corridors and potential future projects. Board members emphasized that the study should provide sufficiently reliable project concepts and cost estimates to help the MPO prioritize improvements and determine how they might fit within its fiscally constrained plans. No contract award or procurement action was identified; the international border crossing strategic plan was deferred to a future meeting.