Date: 201501
Local time of day: 1201-1800
Location: ABQ.Airport, NM
Flight conditions: VMC
Light: Daylight
Aircraft: Medium Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Taxi
ATC / advisory: Tower ABQ
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Captain; Pilot Not Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human factors: Confusion; Distraction; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Ground Incursion Taxiway
Detector: Person Air Traffic Control; Person Flight Crew
When detected: In-flight; Taxi
Result: Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Contributing factors: ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Airport
Primary problem: ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings

Narrative: Landed Runway 8. During rollout tower instructed us to turn right on E6 or E7. As we slowed I looked for signs to the right to locate E6 or E7.  I could see the yellow with black print E7 sign but nothing notating where E6 was. The 10-9 chart shows E6 before E7 but there is no E6 sign at all. There is a section of pavement with numerous yellow Xs (notated as closed on the 10-9). Unfortunately when exiting the runway the yellow Xs look like a maze of taxi way centerlines.  I slowed our taxi; looked for the lead-off line; discussed where E6 was and decided if E7 was up ahead then this must be E6. We only has a few seconds to completed this as we were trying to exit an active runway. There were no runway edge lights; no closed signs; nothing other than the yellow X's which did not look like yellow X's from our point of view. The pavement color was the same grey the rest of the taxiways are colored. Once we had established ourselves on the closed portion of the old E5 I could see widely spaced raised blue taxi edge lights ahead.  I slowed and started to turn back toward the runway; the ABQ ground controller said don't turn back on the runway (we hadn't technically cleared; our right wing was a few feet from the runway edge marking and we had not crossed a hold short line.  The blue taxiway edge lights separating E5 from E were widely spaced (est 80 feet apart) and we asked if we could proceed between the lights.  Ground approved. We continued via E with out further incident. During the decent briefing we discussed the taxi route and specifically Hot Spot 4 as it would likely apply as we proceeded west on taxiway E. We discussed the closures; runway crossings; notams; and the gate location. Without prior experience knowing how confusing the taxiway markings or lack of signage would be; we could not have done much more to prevent mistaking E5 for E6.The root cause was continuing to taxi when I was not 100% confident of our location.  Contributing factors are the poor marking of the location of E6 and the inadequate markings for the closed E5 (it looks like a taxi way until your are on top of the yellow Xs).   Closed taxiways should have the green infield paint if the concrete is going to remain.  Especially along the borders of current taxiways and runways.  Above ground signage should be added to denote the location of E6.  Runway edge lights could be replaced so it does not look like an exit point from runway 8.




Synopsis: An air carrier crew landed on ABQ Runway 8.  They mistakenly exited the runway at closed Taxiway E5 due to poor signage indicating closure and lack of signage indicating the location of E6.