$4 million secured for road county officials think is key to West Side development

Apr. 11—Bernalillo County has netted $4 million in federal funding to update a road that county officials believe could boost West Side economic development.

"The Atrisco Vista Boulevard Corridor on Albuquerque's West Side is one of the fastest growing areas of the state for job growth in the manufacturing, warehousing, and transportation sectors," U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich said in a statement. "Local infrastructure needs to keep up."

The first steps for the rehab project include surveying and acquiring rights of way, said Priscilla Benavides, with design consultant Parametrix, in an email to the Journal. The road needs to be realigned to comply with current design standards, according to a Bernalillo County news release.

The planned 2.35-mile project will add two driving lanes and bike lanes, as well as a multi-use trail. The trail will tie into the Paseo de la Mesa trailhead. The design phase is near completion, the release from the county said. Eventually, the design could allow for four lanes.

"To flatten the horizontal and vertical curves, we need to acquire land adjacent to the property to tie in our improvements," Benavides said.

New Mexico Democrats Heinrich and U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez teamed up to secure the funding. It's about a third of what's needed to complete the project.

Benavides said, as funding hasn't been fully secured, there isn't an estimated start date for construction.

County commissioners voted in 2023 to make Atrisco Vista NW a transportation priority. A 2019 study recommended widening Atrisco Vista from Double Eagle II to Paseo del Norte and extending the road to Southern.

A 2021 report found that there were "cultural resources" in the proposed project area. In an email to the Journal, Parametrix said three "prehistoric archaeological sites" were discovered along the area that require testing to see if there are archaeological deposits below the surface before construction starts. The age is currently unknown.

But those sites aren't a concern for the current phase of the project, they continued, as they're located between Paseo del Norte and Southern.

In the future, however, if the project team finds an archeological site during construction, "the operation will cease in that particular location," Benavides said, until a team of archaeologists can clear the area. Such sites are common in New Mexico and Parametrix and the county have experience mitigating them, Benavides said.

The road connects the Double Eagle II Airport, an Amazon fulfillment and distribution center and could eventually be a major access road for the proposed Santolina development, which was recently scrutinized after a February report found the planned community might not bring in as many people or as much revenue as expected.