'This needs to be a priority': BernCo working on project to improve traffic safety off Coors between Gun Club and Blake

South Valley residents said it is about time for traffic safety improvements to be made on Coors between Gun Club and Blake roads.

“This needs to be the priority,” said resident Melissa Padilla, one of a couple of dozen of people to attend Thursday’s open house inside the South Valley Academy gym.

Bernalillo County is in the design phase of a project that would narrow car lanes, raise medians, add lighting, install HAWK (high-intensity activated crosswalk) signals, multi-trail lanes and concrete curbs to protect those lanes.

“(The changes are) not going to stop every speeder, right? You just can’t engineer around it,” WSB project manager Danny Sims said. “But it’s going to help.”

Resident Yolanda Montoya-Cordova told Sims, “I’m a walker and I don’t even walk in my neighborhood.

“I drive away from my neighborhood to (go for) a safe walk,” she said.

Since 2015, between Gun Club and Blake, “at least” 18 people have been killed while 17 others were seriously injured due to crashes. In total, there have been 1,209 crashes along the corridor during that time, Bernalillo County spokesperson Melissa Smith said in a Sept. 8 news release.

The Gun Club to Blake stretch is one of the most dangerous in the South Valley, Smith said.

“The corridor is extremely dangerous and we have so many children from the academy that cross it,” resident Melissa Padilla said. “That’s why we’re here. We’re gonna fight for our little corner of the South Valley.”

The design phase is 30% complete and is slated to be finished in the spring, Sims said. Construction should begin in the fall or winter of 2026 and take about a year to complete, said Lelia Momenzadeh, Bernalillo County senior project manager.

The county received $8 million in federal grant funding for the project. Of which, $4.3 million is going toward construction, Momenzadeh said.

“We’ve got to do this stuff now before we wait five or six or whatever years to have 18 more deaths,” Senate Majority Whip Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, said.

While people like longtime traffic safety advocate Scot Key said the project “appears to be an excellent start,” others such as county technical planning manager Richard Meadows said more can be done.

“I know people don’t like the speed cameras, but I think that’s a major deterrent, and maybe we should be considering that on Coors,” Meadows said.

Padilla said there should also be increased law enforcement presence in the area “because this is extremely dangerous.”

Bernalillo County District 2 Commissioner Frank Baca said at an upcoming commissioners meeting a resolution will be introduced to develop a task force to look at what is being done across the country to deter speeding.

“There has to be some innovation, some technology, some options that are available throughout the country,” he said.

Smith said people can fill out an online survey sharing their thoughts on the project. The deadline is Oct. 12.

“What we’re hoping to do is hear from people that live, work, use this corridor,” Sims said. “How are you using it? ... Help us prioritize where the money should be spent first.”