Downtown El Paso drivers are about to lose some room on the road. The city is adding a buffered bicycle and pedestrian lane on Campbell Street between Paisano and Missouri, cutting the roadway from three driving lanes down to two, with similar lane reductions coming to Main Street, Mills Street and San Antonio Street.
The $2.6 million Campbell Street project is being funded through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program, with the El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization allocating the money and the City of El Paso kicking in $331,700 as its local match, according to El Paso Inc. The city began work on the lanes earlier this year and expects the project to wrap up by February 2027.
Campbell Street's New Layout
Campbell Street is described as one of the busiest one-way streets leading out of downtown, which makes the lane reduction a notable change for commuters who rely on it. Street parking along the corridor has been shifted to accommodate the new buffered bike lane, though bus stops will remain on the right-hand side of the street as before.
Beyond Campbell, the city plans to add special shared-use lanes on other downtown streets, with Main Street, Mills Street and San Antonio Street each set to get their own lane reductions. Joaquin Rodriguez, the city's director of public works, said the city hopes to avoid further weather or Winterfest-related delays, but acknowledged that work downtown is subject to factors outside its control.
A Bigger Highway Overhaul Looms
The downtown lane changes aren't happening in isolation. The Texas Department of Transportation plans to widen I-10 through downtown, and the current roadway adjustments are described as a preview of the major reconstruction expected once that widening gets underway. TxDOT's 2027 Unified Transportation Program lists the I-10 project running from Spur 1966 to a point half a mile east of Campbell Street, with an estimated construction cost of $525 million, according to a separate report from El Paso Inc. That planned work includes lane additions, new frontage roads, ramp improvements and new bike and pedestrian paths.
A different accounting from El Paso Matters describes the broader Downtown 10 project as an estimated $1.3 billion reconstruction and widening of roughly six miles of I-10 between Executive Center Boulevard and Copia Street — a figure that covers more ground than the $525 million UTP listing, and the two estimates shouldn't be read as describing identical scopes. That outlet also reported that the project is currently estimated to let for construction in December 2027, with construction expected to begin in early 2028.
City Says It's Coordinating With TxDOT
Rodriguez said the city has worked closely with TxDOT for five years to align the city's downtown projects with the state's future plans, and the City of El Paso says it continues working with the agency to keep the timing of its own roadwork in sync with what's coming on the interstate. The downtown roadway changes will proceed regardless of whether the proposed Fred Loya Family Deck Plaza, a 6.5-acre cap planned over I-10 where it passes through downtown, is fully funded and moves forward. The deck plaza and TxDOT's I-10 widening are separate proposals, though the plaza could be incorporated into the highway project if its funding comes together, per the same El Paso Inc. report on the I-10 expansion.
TxDOT's own projections underscore why officials are treating the corridor as urgent: the agency predicts that by 2042, average vehicle speeds through the downtown segment of I-10 will fall to 28 miles per hour, with commute times increasing by 80%, according to El Paso Matters. TxDOT's preferred plan for the corridor also includes a separated two-way cycle track and sidewalk along the freeway's westbound frontage road, a design element that echoes the bike infrastructure now going in on Campbell Street.
Years in the Planning
Downtown bicycle improvements have been part of the region's long-range thinking for years. The El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization's Destino 2045 plan, adopted in October 2018, called for constructing bicycle facilities downtown including buffered bike lanes, conventional bike lanes, bicycle boulevards, shared-lane markings and protected bicycle lanes, with Campbell Street from Missouri among the routes listed in that earlier phase, per the plan's project appendix on file with the organization.
