Corridor project might travel east

Before the first shovel of dirt was even turned for the Los Lunas Boulevard/I-25 Interchange project, many looked at the plans and asked for more.

“We saw what the project was going to do, and it was ultimately going to terminate at N.M. 47,” said Valencia County grant manager Jeremias Silva. “And then what?”

As the Los Lunas project inched closer to beginning, Silva said county staff realized the new intersection of the boulevard and (N.M.) 47 would quickly become a new pinch point for traffic backup given the massive amount of traffic the village of Los Lunas has dealt with over the last few decades.

“In discussion, we thought it would be great to have a feasibility study to identify potential routes to have the Los Lunas Boulevard continue to Manzano Expressway,” Silva said.

If traffic can be taken all the way east to the expressway, then people have the choice of going north to Meadow Lake, east to El Cerro Mission and Monterey Park or south to Rio Communities, Silva said.

The county tasked its contract engineering firm Molzen Corbin with identifying options — corridors for a possible route — from N.M. 47 to the expressway.

“Keep in mind, we’re hoping to accomplish this with the least amount of right-of-way acquisition possible,” Silva said. “That, in itself, is a monster. It’s interfering with farming, interfering with people who have lived there for years. We know it’s going to irk a lot of people.”

Los Lunas Boulevard will connect with N.M. 47 near Otero Road, east of the Rio Grande.

Manzano Expressway is about 3.5 miles further east using existing roads, according to Google maps. The expressway starts at Meadow Lake Road and then runs south/southwest for about 17 miles before it connects to N.M. 47 at the Belen river bridge on it’s southern end.

Molzen Corbin has developed seven alternative alignments for a possible extension east to the expressway from N.M. 47. They are all about 3 miles long and depending on the exact alignment, will cross 60 to 100-plus parcels of land and take upwards of a dozen structures and/or homes.

Silva said all options will require right-of-way acquisitions, but some routes showed “a bit more promise” since they used established roads.

“Acquisitions will be needed but it kind of gives us the best opportunity to avoid causing disturbances to residents,” he said. “We drove each of the (alternative alignments) and we saw the impact to the houses.”

While continuing the boulevard east will eventually require taking property for right-of-way, that’s still a good ways in the future.

“The end goal of this project is a decade out. The feasibility study is going until the end of 2027,” Silva said. “We want to be able to have a series of meetings with the commission so we can present the alternatives in full. Once the commission gives us a thumbs up, it doesn’t mean we’re going to construction. Not anytime soon.

“Just some preliminary numbers in talking with Molzin Corbin, they’re anticipating the project is going to cost anywhere between $70 to $80 million. The bulk of that is going to be right-of-way acquisition, which is estimated to be $10 to $15 million.”

Silva said once the feasibility study is done, then the county can begin looking at project prerequisites, such as environmental requirements and begin pursuing right-of-way acquisition funding from the New Mexico Department of Transportation.

“We have to strategically make sure the steps are done so when we get to a shovel-ready project and we go to the feds, we can say, ‘Look, Uncle Sam, we have done our due diligence. We have considered all the environmental factors, we have a feasibility study, we have completed the design,’” he said.

“But how likely is it that we’re going to get $70 million in one chunk? We can just look at what happened with the village over the past several years. It’s something that’s going to have to be likely phased out.”

Hearing from the community is a high priority for Silva and the commission, he said.

He recalled an April community meeting hosted by the village of Los Lunas to update folks on the Los Lunas Boulevard project. During public comment, residents on Edeal Road and Otero Road had questions about how the county was going to address increased traffic once the interchange project actually connected to N.M. 47.

“I was on the meeting but muted, so we didn’t get an opportunity to express we have a plan. The community definitely has an understanding of what the impact is going to be,” he said. “Once we are done with the feasibility study, then the community input comes. We want to make sure this is something people want.”

As the project develops and details are worked out, Silva said the hope is to move quickly enough to engage the state and federal legislators who worked on the Los Lunas Boulevard project, so it’s still fresh in their minds.

“They are aware of the routes we need to go through for the funding, so we can use that help to fund this,” he said.