Road Warrior: Happy birthday to the U.S. numbered highway system; roundabout talk in Socorro

Happy Monday. And happy birthday to the U.S. numbered highway system, which was established nearly a century ago.

Before there was U.S. 66 or U.S. 54, motorists traveled on auto trails across the country. These trails were marked with colored bands on telephone and electric poles, and were sometimes maintained by organizations like automobile clubs. The Lincoln Highway and National Old Trails Road were two of the more well-known auto trails.

Federal Highway Administration Information Liaison Specialist Richard Weingroff said the trail system provided a valuable service, but “as the number of named trails increased, and as the number of automobiles increased, so did the problems caused by the routes.”

One of those problems was that routes overlapped. One stretch of highway in southwest New Mexico, for example, carried markers for the Apache Trail, Atlantic-Pacific Highway and Lee Highway.

The confusion would be addressed through the adoption of the numbered system on Nov. 11, 1926.

“Paved paths to all parts of the United States,” the Grand Rapids Press reported on Nov. 13, 1926. “That is what the federal highway system is expected to mean in the next few years.

“It aims at far more than the numbering and marking of interstate routes. It looks to the speedy improvement of all roads that form parts of these routes.”

There are some U.S. highways in New Mexico like U.S. 60, which runs about 400 miles from Texico to Arizona.

ROUNDABOUT IN SOCORRO: The New Mexico Department of Transportation is conducting a study on U.S. 60 in Socorro.

The project area begins west of the rodeo arena to California Street in four segments named rural, urban, y-intersection and urban east.

According to NMDOT, the goals of the study include evaluating the condition of the road, traffic and drainage, and determining whether improvements are needed to enhance safety, operations, and multimodal accessibility in the study area.

NMDOT has proposed building a single lane roundabout at the y-intersection on Grant/Spring and Highway 60. This would reduce traffic speed and improve pedestrian safety, NMDOT District 1 spokesperson Ami Evans said in an email.

The study is slated to be finished during the winter.

66 GRANTS: The New Mexico Tourism Department is awarding about $1.5 million in grant funding to several New Mexico communities along Route 66 to prepare for and promote the 2026 centennial celebration.

The grants were issued for infrastructure ($1.043 million), marketing and promotion ($400,000) and special events ($70,000).

Funding for the grant program was sourced in part from a $2.5 million special appropriation allocated to the New Mexico Tourism Department during the 2024 legislative session.

“We know that communities across New Mexico’s stretch of Route 66 are excited to invest in the centennial so we can share our slice of the Mother Road with the rest of the world,” Tourism Department Acting Secretary Lancing Adams said in a statement. “This grant program was created to provide flexibility in how we can support destinations that best fit their needs — whether it’s infrastructure development, promotion or special event support.”

NMDOT PROJECTS: NMDOT District 3 recently awarded $7.6 million in six roadway projects, of which about $4.2 million went toward Don Diego Road reconstruction in the City of Rio Communities.