ODESSA, Texas — The Permian Basin Metropolitan Planning Organization meets once a month to talk about how they can spend state and federal funds on their assigned projects.
On Monday, members of the MPO gave updates on the construction happening around and on I-20.
Eric Lykins is an engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation's Odessa District, who gave the update to the board.
Many of the south frontage roads near Loop 250 and State Highway 349 will be getting dedicated right and left turn lanes along with new through lanes.
A temporary traffic signal will be going up near County Road 120 and Antelope Trail as well.
Other sections of various frontage roads will also be updated or removed.
All of this is to help the flow of traffic and allow people to get where they are going faster, at least until the construction is over.
"By adding more lanes, obviously you can get more traffic through," said Lykins. "A two-way lane versus a four way lane, you can move more volume through there, so that's going. By adding the additional lanes, we got more capacity there to get those vehicles through."
Because of the size of the MPO's coverage, representatives from multiple different places are necessary. This allows for more opinions to be had on the board.
“Midland County has a representative on the policy board, the City of Midland has a representative, Martin County has a representative, because part of the MPO boundary is in Martin County," said Lykins. "Also Ector County, the City of Odessa and then I’m TxDOT's representative on the board.”