News - NM300 Rehab, Old Pecos Trail
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(Feb 19, 2003 BCNM Santa Fe) - Report by Dan Baker The NMSHTD is held an open house on a roadway rehabilitation project planned between milepost 0.0 to milepost 6.3 along the Old Las Vegas Highway. This is basically from the "vendor area" by Rodeo Rd, south to the Eldorado exit. Construction is scheduled to start March 2004, and last about 9 months with a budget of about $6M. The proposed project includes pavement rehabilitation and fence replacement, 4 foot shoulders on each side of the road, and installation of a traffic signal and lighting at the El Gancho intersection, among other items. From a biking perspective the project all looked very good. There were 4 or so BCNM people present and we all made short comments to lend our support, and a few minor suggestions. We suggested "bike-friendly" striping for the right-turnout to show designated thru lanes for cyclist, suggested retaining 11 foot motorist lanes rather than increasing to 12 in an effort to keep the speed down, and requested that reasonable attention be made concerning the smoothness of the shoulder pavement. There were about 60-70 people there, and concerns were presented on the design of the lighting to avoid upward "light pollution", and some issues with turnouts and merging lane safety. Harry's Roadhouse and the Bobcat both have encroachments in the right-of-way with their parking lots, but those issues will be settled on paper most likely. It certainly sounded like the project was moving ahead, and we can all look forward to a nicely Rehabbed stretch of road to enable safe bike-commuting and recreation all the way out to the Eldorado exit.
The only bad news I learned, was that the road Rehab is not planned to continue south toward Las Vegas anytime in the next 6 years. I was hoping that they has already planned on developing this route as a safe alternative to biking on I-25, but its not on the books at this time.
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