Tower Pinch Point Gone, Lines Added

DON’T FORGET TO VOTE! Not only in the general election, but for what you want to see to make your commute easier on the electronic message boards, your smart phone, on nmroads.com and on the 511 roads phone line.

Monday’s Road Warrior column had a list of possible information and asked drivers to rank what they want to see, as well as where they want to see it. A form is online at ABQJournal.com. You can also email your input to road@abqjournal.com. The information will be shared at an upcoming conference with the folks who put out the information and respond to traffic backups.

COUNTY ROADS GET COST-EFFECTIVE FACE-LIFT: Bernalillo County recently finished slurry sealing a list of roads. That matters to drivers because the pavement rides smoother with the new top coat. It matters to taxpayers because the preventive maintenance costs “less than 1/10th” of the $65 per lineal foot it runs to rip out and re-do a road that has not been maintained, according to David Mitchell, who’s director of Operations and Maintenance for Bernalillo County.

He says the county has around a “million feet of roads that are deteriorated enough that they can’t be treated anymore and have to be ripped out and re-done.”

That makes the $64,032.54 spent on laying a new layer of asphalt over newly sealed cracks — which will “get 10 extra years of pavement life” on these roads — look like an even better deal. Mitchell says, “The business case for this ‘asset preservation’ is a no-brainer.”

Road Maintenance manager Tom Raught says the slurry-sealed roads encompass 33,525 square yards of pavement and include:

♦ Justin Drive from Paradise Boulevard to Russell Drive.

♦ Fairfax Drive from Simon Drive to Erlitz Drive.

♦ Ironwood Drive from Justin Drive to Erlitz Drive.

♦ Erlitz Drive from Ironwood Drive to Russell Drive.

♦ Treasure Court from Fairfax Drive to the end.

♦ Fairfax Court from Fairfax Drive to the end.

♦ Club Court from Fairfax Drive to the end.

♦ Treasure Court cul de sac from the circular shape to the end.

♦ Fairfax Court cul de sac from the circular shape to the end.

♦ Club Court cul de sac from the circular shape to the end.

In addition, crews also slurry sealed two parking lots at Paradise Hills Community Center. Mitchell says “the parking lots were funded from a facilities source not used for public roads.”

TOWER PINCH-POINT GONE: Crews have finished four-laning Tower near Coors, along with reworking striping and signage so drivers know how to maintain their lanes.

Mitchell provided some photos that show “how the four-laning of the pinch point came out, and just down the block … how they added the ‘elephant tracks’ (thick dashes) and the sign clarifying the left-turn only movement at Coors.”

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.