Unser Now Open; Widening Is Next

Last week readers asked when the pavement between Paradise and Paseo would be available to commuters. On Tuesday the barricades came down.

Michael Riordan, director of the city’s Department of Municipal Development, says this is the last piece in the now 38-mile stretch that has Unser running from U.S. 550 just north of Rio Rancho all the way south to Dennis Chavez Boulevard. The major arterial is designed to take a load off Coors and relieve traffic on Universe by giving those commuters an alternative to driving through the congested education corridor in front of Tony Hillerman Middle School and Volcano Vista High.

So, how does it drive?

Mike Snyder reports that “while southbound Universe was still pretty busy, there were noticeably fewer cars turning onto Universe from Paradise. I got through with two cycles of the traffic light instead of four. And at the intersection of Paseo and Unser, about 10 cars were waiting at the light on southbound Unser. About half turned east onto Paseo, and the rest continued south on Unser. I don’t know if the city put up signs on Paradise and Unser about it being open all the way, but I’m sure more people will use it as they discover it’s open.”

JoAnn Anders says “the Unser roadway pavement rode well. However, it is one lane in each direction, as is Paseo up here on the mesa. As long as drivers remember to be in the middle lane when they get to Paradise it should be an easy route. There are traffic lights on Paseo with turn arrows allowing for consistent flow. I drove it in all directions and it worked smoothly.”

And ejacksonnm says “fortunately — or unfortunately — I’m not driving that way right now. I was teaching at UNM West in Rio Rancho, but I’m between classes for them right now. I look forward to using the new extension, though. Now if they would just make the final stretch of two-lane Unser into four lanes. :-)”

Hold on. The city isn’t done making improvements to Unser just yet.

Still to come:

♦ Widening Unser to four lanes (adding one in each direction) from McMahon north to the city limit with Rio Rancho. This $1.3 million project will get this section of Unser in its permanent configuration. It’s gone out to bid, and Riordan says construction should start late spring/early summer.

♦ Widening Unser to four lanes (adding one in each direction) from Bandelier north to McMahon. Riordan says this $1.7 million project will start when McMahon to the city limit is complete, likely around the end of the year.

♦ Widening Unser from Interstate 40 to Ouray to add a lane to access the highway. This $5.5 million project is close to going out to bid, Riordan says, with construction scheduled this summer.

♦ Widening Unser from Montaño to Dellyne. Riordan says this project is still in discussion and design, but the various improvements will include adding sidewalks.

Riordan says when these four projects are complete, the city will be done with widening Unser. Any future widening work — like four-laning the stretch that opened this week — “will be done by private developers” along the roadway.

And Riordan says the Volcano Heights Sector Plan has Paseo/Unser as a major crossroads on the West Side, with an ABQ Uptown-like development projected. Having Unser complete “opens up opportunities” for that kind of private-sector development.

Finally, Ejacksonnm adds “it looks like the city has renamed ‘Lyon’ so that Unser is now one continuous street. Yay, Albuquerque/Bernalillo County for doing that before the new street opens. :-)”

Actually, the stretch that was Lyon was in the county, and David Mitchell, director of the Operations and Maintenance Department, says of the switch “we started it last August and paid for the new signs in the city and installed them by last October. And here we are on the second day of spring, all according to schedule.”

LEFTOVER CASH WIDENING UNIVERSE: Meanwhile, there was around $400,000 left over in federal funding from the recent project that connected Universe to McMahon, Riordan says, so the city will use that to widen the new stretch of Universe, adding two lanes from just north of Irving to McMahon.

A FINAL THOUGHT FROM A COMMUTER: Mike says “although I didn’t vote for Mayor (Richard) Berry, I’m impressed with how hard he’s pushed to improve the roads on the West Side. It’s making traffic flow a LOT better. And ‘boo, hiss’ to the councilors who are blocking the funding application for the Paseo interchange. Where were these guys during the past year when everything was in process? Oh well.”

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, N.M. 87103; or go to abqjournal.com/traffic to read previous columns and join in the conversation.