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MORE WORK ON TOWER: After recent columns addressed the widening and potential re-striping of Tower near Coors, Lena Baca called to say the roadway is still a little rough.
Specifically, around her mailbox.
She says, “I don’t want to fall out there,” so she hasn’t been getting her mail since crews added to the smooth pavement but roughed up the shoulder dirt.
And a neighbor contacted Bernalillo County with a similar concern.
David Mitchell director of operations and maintenance for the county, says what likely happened is the shoulders were affected when Tower, a crowned road (which is higher in the middle than on the sides) was widened. The work affected “the 2 percent grade break in the road from side to side that allows the water to shed into roadside ditches or curbs. … It shouldn’t be too hard to correct.”
In fact, that same day, last Thursday, he got a work order issued near the entrance to the Suenos Encantados subdivision on the south side of Tower to “shove the concrete base a couple feet south to make it so the drop-off from the concrete base is less significant to the new road edge. … There is some minor shoulder grading that will adjust the transition of the shoulders due to the new edge of the road being cut in further to the side slopes compared to what was there before.”
DIRT VERSION OF BROADMOOR UNSAFE: Byron Waxler emails, “I read your article in (the) Rio Rancho Journal of Sept. 6 (regarding extending Broadmoor from Paseo del Volcan to Norwich Avenue).
“This ‘extension’ had been a graded road at least 15 years ago when I moved to Rio Rancho. It is now a hard-packed dirt road that could use some leveling out, etc., but it is being used now as it is. It could be improved a lot without spending over $6 million on design and construction.”
Byron goes on to say, “The biggest problem that I saw driving over it in both directions (this week) was the barricade area and curb where the current pavement ends on (the) south end. This needs to be cleaned up and cleared away.”
The city maintains that could do more harm than good.
Peter Wells , communications officer for the city of Rio Rancho, says “the area where the city wants to extend Broadmoor is a dirt road that is not maintained by the city, and to access motorists must drive around barricades.
“Engineering analysis has already determined that opening this dirt road either with regular grading or by putting down millings (ground up asphalt with added polymers) would encourage consistent and high traffic volumes which would not be safe.”
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.
— This article appeared on page 1 of the West Side Journal
