Metal sheets covering El Paso Water repairs causing issues for drivers
Olivia Vara
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Steel metal plates covering past and ongoing repairs under roads can be seen across El Paso. If there’s someone in the lane next to you, you have no choice but to drive over it.
Neighbors that live near Westwind Drive in West El Paso say they have had to deal with the metal covering in the street for about a month now.
“People do avoid them,” Tonny Hammes, one of the neighbors near Westwind Drive, told ABC-7 during an interview. He says he’ll drive over the metal plate with his pickup truck, but not with his smaller car.
“It’s got big, heavy duty tires on it. But with the other car, I try to avoid the plate because it’s got performance tires on it,” said Hammes.
Another El Pasoan, Gabriel Munoz, also tries to avoid the metal sheet.
“It’s horrible because sometimes I gotta make a really bad stop, bad stop, or even move from side to side,” said Munoz.
These metal plates on the roads are forcing driver to either slow down or risk hurting their tires.
El Paso water put these temporary metal plates after doing work on water mains.
“If our crews leave for the day, they still have to leave it covered, but they can’t go back and pave it just yet until the work is complete,” spokesperson for El Paso Water, Denise Parra, told ABC-7. “There’s kind of a line for a lot of these paving projects to, to be completed.”
El Paso Water says the metal plate is there after they repaired a leak on Westwind Drive.
They say the hole covered by the metal plate on Westwind Drive is expected to be paved over by the end of the month. For now, they advise people to slow down if they drive over one.
“It would be nice if they would finish the job before they start another one,” said the neighbor near Westwind Drive, Tony Hammes.