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From Unpaved Roads to Improvement Needs, City Has Been Plagued By Traffic Woes

Posted on: Monday, 27 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By JOSHUA AKERS Journal Staff Writer

From a small grid to gridlock -- commuters, soccer moms and retirees still have a tough time navigating Rio Rancho.

The city is still dependent on state and federal money for major road improvements. It struggles to maintain miles of paved and unpaved roads. And it is plagued by rush-hour traffic jams -- all traffic woes that have been a part of the city since its inception.

There weren't as many roads in Rio Rancho in 1981, but the population was seven times smaller than it is today.

Politicians have struggled to find relief since the beginning and have yet to find the answers.

In the early 1980s, residents voted to tax themselves to pay for road improvements. The tax also helped the city qualify for state funds.

In 2001, voters kicked in $5 million to help pay for the $22 million widening of N.M. 528 between West Side and Southern boulevards. It did little to relieve the growing crush of cars fighting to get in and out of the city every day.

Current Mayor Jim Owen has pushed for more roads and more federal and state money to help the city alleviate traffic problems.

But Owen recognizes that the key to solving the city's traffic woes is putting more jobs on the west side of the river and in Rio Rancho.

"You can have a safe place and good schools, but if you don't have jobs, you're just a bedroom community," Owen said. "That was our history, but that is not our future."

The city is pouring money into a planned downtown near the intersection of Unser Boulevard and Paseo del Volcan. Over $12 million will be spent on short stretches of the two roads this year.

Those roads are at the top of the city's priority list and have received millions of dollars from the state and federal government for construction.

Looking for relief

The city hopes that more north-south roads leading in and out of Rio Rancho will alleviate the congestion on N.M. 528, the city's main street.

Improvements to Golf Course Road have provided a modicum of relief, although it connects with routes already beset by rush-hour congestion.

Similarly, Unser extends south into Bernalillo County but, because of snags with the westward extension of Paseo del Norte, ends at heavily traveled Paradise Boulevard. It ultimately would provide a direct link to Interstate 40.

Further to the west, Rainbow Boulevard, Paseo del Volcan, and eventually the Northwest Loop will all provide access to the city.

But when those roads will be funded is still well into the future, according the Mid-Region Council of Governments Transportation plan.

For now, N.M. 528 is in desperate need of expansion from Southern to U.S. 550, and the city is waiting for the state to fund the widening of the highway. It was the city's priority in its proposal for possible road projects in Governor Richardson's Road Improvements Project II.

Rio Rancho has no plans to chip in for N.M. 528 this time, Owen has said.

"That was a one-time deal and not a precedent I'm comfortable with," Owen said.

The east-west Northern Boulevard is scheduled to be widened next year under a schedule developed by the Mid-Region Council of Governments.

Meanwhile, the city faces decaying road infrastructure in many of its older neighborhoods.

Last year, it started an infrastructure improvement fund to help with some of those issues. In the early years of the city, voters passed a half-cent sales tax to pay for road improvements, much of which went into the widening of Southern Boulevard. Some of that money is being used now to fund the $7.36 million widening of Unser from Abrazo to Farol Road, just north of Cherry Road.

The city also currently maintains more than 100 miles of unpaved roads where development has occurred, and has over 400 miles of dirt roads within the city limits.

No paving soon

Today's residents wanting paved streets are going to have to wait for a long time, unless they are willing to dip into their own pockets.

The city prefers to use special assessment district to pave roads and improve drainage in neighborhoods not built as part of a masterplanned subdivision.

Developers of masterplanned subdivisions are responsible for paving roads and improving drainage.

City Councilor Howard Balmer made the case in his run for mayor and in his time on the council that all residents in Rio Rancho shouldn't have to pay for a few to have roads paved.

"I paid for my street in the price of my house," Balmer said. "Why should I have to pay for someone else's?"

But in the cases of Unser and Paseo del Volcan, politicians have no problem with people from around the state or across the nation paying for the roads.

Rio Rancho hopes that money continues to trickle down from the state and federal governments.

Its No. 1 priority in Santa Fe this year is $5.5 million to continue widening Unser Boulevard to King Boulevard, near the site of the new downtown.

Source: Albuquerque Journal

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