Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Paseo Extension Cut to Two Lanes

By Andrea Schoellkopf
Journal Staff Writer
    There's more bad news for motorists who have waited years for the extension of Paseo del Norte: the road through the petroglyphs has been reduced from four lanes to two, for now.
    John Castillo, the city's director of municipal development, said Tuesday the city can only afford to pave two lanes of the controversial 1,200-foot road from Golf Course to Kimmick.
    The project became more expensive when the city decided to build a bridge across the Piedras Marcadas Arroyo rather than face a lengthy permit process required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers— and what could be another battle with Paseo opponents.
    The original plan called for a retailer to build a pipeline and fill in the arroyo with dirt, which the city could then pave over for the road. However, changing the arroyo required a permit from the Army Corps.
    Building a bridge across the arroyo avoids the permit process but adds about $800,000 to the project's cost.
    Original designs called for a four-lane road divided by a median. Castillo said the scaled-back plan will prepare the site for four lanes but will only pave the two lanes on one side of the median.
    "We're just building one side at this time," Castillo said. "We had to reduce the cost because of the bridge."
    Castillo, late Tuesday, could not identify the projected cost of a four-lane road compared to a two-lane road.
    The design of the below-ground road includes a 30-foot pedestrian overpass at the top of the escarpment, soundwalls, an underpass for pedestrian and animal crossings, and artistic touches such as crushed metal exterior fencing, lightboxes and images of animals and birds.
    Despite the cuts, construction bids Tuesday came in over the $13.8 million budgeted for the project. The minimum bid was submitted by Salls Brothers Construction at $14.5 million, Castillo said. Three other bids were from Mountain States, Albuquerque Underground and A.S. Horner, Castillo said. The highest bid was $17.6 million.
    The city— which relocated five petroglyphs and other rocks out of the road's intended path last month— is now analyzing the low bid for accuracy and may need to look for any contingency funds or if there needs to be more cuts in the project, Castillo said.
    Longtime road supporter Larry Weaver said he was disappointed to hear that the road would only be two lanes but said the traffic levels will probably get by on two lanes for another four or five years.
    "The whole idea was to try to get the project done and get it done right," Weaver said Tuesday.
    Supporters of the Paseo extension say it will ease east-west traffic congestion. The extension is projected to carry 27,000 vehicles a day upon completion.
    Opponents of the extension say it crosses a sacred site that contained artifacts such as ancient rock drawings and stones used for prayer and other purposes.
    The city had intended to work with Wal-Mart, which has built a small Marketplace store north of the proposed extension and wanted to install a pipeline in the arroyo and then fill in the ditch. The Paseo extension would then cross the arroyo where it had been filled in.
    But when Wal-Mart submitted an application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in early March to realign the Piedras Marcadas Arroyo, install the pipeline and fill in part of the ditch, the Corps insisted the city be the one to submit the permit request.
    The Corps contended that work would be primarily on city-owned land and would benefit the city.
    Castillo said the original permit application from Wal-Mart should have been granted quickly.
    Instead, the city was notified in October that it would have to go through a lengthy process to get the permit.
    "The public sector's wasting money on something the private sector would have installed and we would've benefited from," Castillo said Tuesday.
    Jean Manger, regulatory project manager for the Albuquerque District Army Corps of Engineers, said in an interview last year that stricter environmental laws require the Army Corps to look at impacts to both animal life and cultural properties.
    However, she said, building a bridge— rather than filling in the arroyo— would not require a permit.
    If the city pursued the permit process to fill in the arroyo, it might be May or June, at the earliest, before a permit could be issued, according to a Dec. 29 e-mail to Castillo from Manger.
    Castillo in a follow-up letter said the Corps' decision would increase the cost of the Paseo project by $800,000.
    "It would have been a lot better project," Castillo said of the original plan. "It would have extended four lanes immediately."

E-MAIL Journal Staff Writer Andrea Schoellkopf