State Rep. Joe Pickett said the Texas Department of Transportation recently made plans to bring more toll roads to El Paso.

Pickett believes it's part of a plan to help fund a major project in downtown El Paso.

TxDOT is proposing to create an additional lane on Loop 375 in both directions from Zaragoza Road to Bob Hope Drive. The additional lane would operate as a toll lane

The Metropolitan Planning Organization held its monthly meeting Friday, There they discussed future projects, including the proposal to extend the toll lane project already underway on the Border Highway.

Pickett told KFOX14 he's against more toll lanes and thinks the project was brought forward to support the downtown trolley project.

He claims the city doesn't have enough money to fund the trolley project.

"There's only one fund that that money can come from. It's called the mobility fund and even as of last night I verified with Austin officials it could come out of there but the policy is you have to have a leverage project for it or toll," said Pickett.

Teresa Quezada with the Regional Mobility Association said there is no link between the two projects.

"This was to study it and to determine again what the logical terminal would be for the toll facility would be but we don't know what it would generate and if it would generate enough to leverage other projects or transit project," said Quezada.

El Paso City Manager Joyce Wilson said city officials plan on applying for grant money from the federal transit administration to fund the trolley project, which is estimated to cost $90 million.

Pickett said it is very unlikely the FTA will fund that much money.
TxDOT officials said they should complete the traffic study on these additional toll lanes some time next year.

If approved they will begin construction in 2015.