I-25/N.M. 6 project underway, aims to improve traffic flow

LOS LUNAS — While there’s a lot of attention being paid to the Los Lunas Boulevard and second Interstate 25 interchange project in and around Los Lunas, another major project involving I-25 got going a few weeks ago.

Approved by the Los Lunas Village Council in November 2024, the I-25/N.M. 6 on and off ramps rehab and reconstruction project has begun with basic work near the bridge over the interstate and will take six months to complete, said Los Lunas Public Works Director Michael Jaramillo.

“They’re not reconstructing the bridge,” he said. “What we’re gonna do is re-stripe it. There is enough lane width to make a couple of changes to support the turning movements that have been identified.”

The $4,377,389 project is being handled by Desert Fox Paving of Peralta with plans to add another right turn lane to the I-25 southbound off-ramp, to make a total of two right turn lanes. Another left turn lane on N.M. 6 to get on the 1-25 northbound on-ramp is to be added for a total of two left turn lanes.

The bridge across I-25 currently has five lanes. The addition of another left turn lane will require a sixth lane on the bridge.

“People say (the bridge is) already narrow to begin with, but I think they’re confused with the area between Don Pasqual and Main Street. The bridge still has a little bit of room to work with. We’re also putting some new signals.”

Jaramillo said the project is mostly being done mostly at night for the first few weeks and then transition to some day work.

“The day work is gonna impact the traffic movement,” he said. “We know that and so we’re going to try to minimize it as much as possible so I think even just putting up traffic control signs showing that you have delineation in the lane.

“It’s going to startle some drivers and they’ll have to go a little slower until they get used to it.”

Jaramillo said the N.M. Department of Transportation wanted the village to delay the project until after Los Lunas Boulevard project was completed, but the village convinced DOT to allow work to begin before that three-year project gets underway.

“We just said we can’t survive that,” he said. “Since we got some good money for it through grants, and the village is paying for it as well, we argued to just keep it on track and just said, ‘Let’s do it now.’”

Another major aspect of the project is elimination of a single “free right” lane that takes westbound traffic north onto the 1-25 northbound on-ramp without having to stop. That lane will be removed and replaced by two right turn exit lanes that will be governed by signal lights and replaced by a signal.

On the west side of the interstate, the off-ramp to Main Street will be widened from three lanes currently to four lanes, with two turning west and two turning east across the bridge.

Jaramillo said there will be a few weeks of total shutdown of the interchange that will necessitate a detour onto N.M. 314 up towards Exit 209, which leads from Interstate 25 into the Pueblo of Isleta.

“We are doing everything we can to minimize closures,” Jaramillo said. “If the temperatures stay good and we can pave when the temperatures are nice it can be done at night. There are contingency plans and we’ll just cross our fingers that the weather helps us out.”