Big Coors Road Project Slated for Summer

MORE COORS ON THE WAY THIS SUMMER: Get ready for road construction on one of the busiest roads in town.
Phil Gallegos, spokesman for NMDOT’s District 3 Office, says crews are gearing up to add a northbound lane and improve the drainage on Coors between Paseo del Norte and Westside — the big work is simply on hold until school gets out for summer, because then traffic loads drop an estimated 20 percent.
Right now there’s surveying, pothole filling and drainage work being done. Next up in the $5.7 million project will be reducing northbound Coors to two lanes for 33 days.
But Gallegos says then work crews will shift into “24-7 mode” because the NMDOT built incentives into the contract to encourage the work get done sooner. “The contractor receives the maximum incentive bonus for shaving off seven days from the 33 days allowed.”
Other closures (that will not happen during the Coors lane drop) will include shutting Valley View for a week, so access to the Burger King and neighboring businesses will be at Irving. When that work is complete, crews will then close the east leg of Irving for a week or two and business access will be via Valley View.
Drivers will also have to merge when coming off westbound Paseo del Norte onto northbound Coors because the ramp will be reduced to one lane.
Gallegos says the total project is scheduled to last 90 days.
BIKE TRAIL BETTER THAN BEFORE: There’s more to the Paseo bike trail repairs at Edith and El Pueblo that were mentioned in last week’s column.
But first a look at the adjacent road project, which should have a positive effect on cyclists.
David Mitchell, Bernalillo County’s director of Operations and Maintenance, says “the real star of the show here (is) the El Pueblo reconstruction (between Edith and Second) itself, with the big wide stripes and new bike shoulders that connect the laser-focused trail to the Rail Runner station finally.”
Drivers now have “big, broad road striping — the double-yellow center line is spaced 18 inches apart with 6-inch stripes as opposed to the usual 12-inch spacing with 4-inch stripes. It makes the road look shorter and on a different scale, so people in cars don’t feel the need to hit the gas through here.”
In addition, “there was no way to get down from the elevated bike bridge trail down to the Rail Runner station without this shoulder improvement from either Second or Edith. Now you can come in from both directions on a bike. It was always posted as a bike route, but you wouldn’t have wanted to attempt it before.”
The bottom line?
“Cyclists can now choose to ride safely to the Rail Runner on El Pueblo where there was no shoulder a month ago,” Mitchell says.
As for the short, dicey rough spot on the bike path at El Pueblo and Edith, county Construction and Engineering manager Nolan Bennett says while that trail damage all started when an unmarked waterline was hit, when water utility crews went out to fix it they hit an unmarked Qwest line, and when Qwest’s subcontractor repaired it “they apparently did not fix all the trail damage.”
But county and NMDOT staff stayed on the case, and Andrew Pacheco of Bernalillo County Public Works says “the asphalt repairs for the bike trail at Edith and El Pueblo were completed May 19.”
Assistant editorial page editor D’Val Westphal tackles commuter issues for the Metro area on Mondays and West Siders and Rio Ranchoans on Thursdays. Reach her at 823-3858; road@abqjournal.com; P.O. Drawer J, Albuquerque, NM 87103; or go to ABQjournal.com/traffic to read previous columns and join in the conversation.