Saturday, January 14, 2006

Paseo Extension Work May Start Next Week

By Andrea Schoellkopf
Journal Staff Writer
    Construction on the controversial Paseo del Norte extension could begin next week after the city signed off on a $14.5 million contract Friday.
    Meanwhile, opponents of the extension filed a motion asking a state judge to halt the project, although their attorney acknowledged the matter might not be heard until after the work is under way.
    Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez said the city is ready to go on the road.
    "We have a green light," Chávez said Friday. "... All the documents were signed."
    Salls Brothers Construction of Albuquerque submitted the lowest of four bids, but was still $700,000 over the city's budget for the project. John Castillo, director of municipal development, said developer contributions would make up the difference.
    "They could start today," Castillo said. "They'll probably be out there next week."
    He said that under the contract, the company has a year to complete the 1.5-mile, two-lane extension from Golf Course to Kimmick.
    The extension has been reported at 1,200 feet in length. City officials said Friday that is the distance from Golf Course to the top of the escarpment in an area that was formerly part of Petroglyph National Monument. The city plans to seek private funding to complete the road from Kimmick to Universe.
    On Friday afternoon, attorneys for the Sierra Club, National Trust for Historic Preservation and local residents Lora Lucero, John Archuleta, Susan Rodriguez and David Lujan— who are all parties in a lawsuit filed in early 2005 against the city over the project— filed a motion for a preliminary injunction with District Judge Linda Vanzi in Albuquerque.
    The motion asks the court to stop the project.
    "The purpose of the present motion is to ensure that the city minimizes the harm that might result from the road," said Richard Barish, who is legal chair for the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club and is one of two new attorneys representing the plaintiffs. The other is Andrea Ferster, of Washington, D.C.
    A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Jan. 24.
    Barish wasn't aware the city plans to begin construction next week, but said it isn't likely the judge would hear the motion sooner because attorneys for both the city and the neighborhood groups that are interveners in the case need time to respond.
    Even if the work begins, Barish said, "there are a wide range of remedies the judge could order."
    Opponents of the extension say it would cross a sacred site that, until last month, contained prehistoric Indian petroglyphs.
    Last month, crews hired by the city moved the five petroglyphs that sat in the road's pathway, clearing the way for the road to be built.
    Although the petroglyphs have been moved, Barish said the plaintiffs hoped to minimize other impacts from the road, such as noise and visual disruption.
    Chávez said he believed the city would prevail in the motion, calling it "basically a rehash of the same issue before the same judge."
    Other plaintiffs in the case withdrew Friday, among them the Sacred Alliance for Grassroots Equality, the SouthWest Organizing Project, the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice and the New Mexico Archaeological Council Inc., along with attorneys from the New Mexico Environmental Law Center.
    In October, Vanzi issued a partial summary judgment in the case, saying the city had satisfied requirements in determining there is no prudent and feasible alternative to the Paseo del Norte extension.
    However, she denied summary judgment on whether the city had met all the conditions of the New Mexico Prehistoric and Historic Sites Preservation Act to minimize harm to the monument.
    The right of way sits on eight acres set aside by Congress in 1997 that bisects the monument.
    Wal-Mart, which has a store off Paseo just west of Golf Course, applied for a permit last year to fill in part of the Piedras Marcadas Arroyo, replacing it with an underground pipeline. That would have given the store better access to its parking lot area and allowed the city to pave Paseo right over it. Instead, delays in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit process have forced the city to instead consider building an $800,000 bridge over the arroyo, which also means scaling the project back to two paved lanes because of costs.
    Castillo said the road could be built as four lanes and without the bridge if the Wal-Mart permit goes through.

E-MAIL Journal Staff Writer Andrea Schoellkopf