U.S. 54 project through Carrizozo pushed back two years

• Straightening curves on some roads is too expensive, other alternatives sought
• Ski area curves present driving safety and community economic issues

Although U.S. 54 is in line for millions of dollars of projects, the segment running through Carrizozo in front of the county courthouse was pushed back by two years to 2019 by officials at the state level of the New Mexico Department of Transportation, county commissioners learned this week.

Tim Parker, DOT District 2 engineer, briefed the board on various projects and an overview of the district during their regular meeting, and introduced members of his staff, including Jimmy Luna, who heads the Capitan Road Yard for the state DOT.

During questioning at the end of his presentation, Parker said that the project was moved back to give priority to “the worse of the worse” problems on U.S. 54.

County Manager Nita Taylor also asked Parker about a curve on New Mexico Highway 48 by the county fairgrounds that is so severe, people end up driving into the parking lot of the county health clinic in the evening when visibility is not as good.

Parker said in the second district there are about 100 “dead man’s curves” and in most cases, trying to straighten or modify the curve would be too expensive, Instead, the state looks at signage, reflectors warnings, flashing lights, rumble stripes and other options. Luna said the issue already is in the hands of a district engineer, who will come up with some recommendations within 30 days to 40 days.

“Our statewide budget is about $860 million for the Department of Transportation funded through the gas tax, the special fuels tax, weight-distance tax and vehicle registrations,” Parker said. “Those are things that insulate us from the standard state budget which has deficits for 2016 into 2017.” But even with that protection, 20 percent of the budget comes off the top to cover debt repayment, higher this year at 32 percent going to the train in Albuquerque, he said.

District 2, the largest geographically of the six in the state, receives between $25 million to $26 million a year to take care of the counties of Chaves, Lincoln, Otero (including the Mescalero Apache Tribe), Eddy, Lea, Roosevelt, Curry, DeBaca and part of Guadalupe and Torrance. The district is responsible for 7,750 lane miles of roads with the most four-lane non Interstate miles in the state. Those roads serve 137 communities through the operation of 16 maintenance patrol yards, two special crews and six project offices composed of 332 employees.

Some of the local projects recently completed were on Ski Run Road, where $3.4 million was spent on safety improvements at Axle Bend and Last Curve; $1.8 million on Apache Summit on U.S. 70 on the Mescalero Apache reservation; $1.5 million for mill and fill on about three miles of U.S. 70 at several locations.

Maintenance projects in the county included recycling and repaving followed by chip seal on U.S. 380 in Carrizozo, Parker said.

“Chip seal is our number one maintenance treatment,” he said “We do it all over the district, because it tends to be the most bang for the buck minus the inconvenience and relatively few windshields (shattered by flying rock).”

Out of the $25 million, off the top $5.5 million goes to contract maintenance and other $5 million to supplies for snow removal. The cost of building a two-lane road is $1.5 million a mile and to reconstruct a four-lane road is $2.5 million a mile, he said.

The money goes quickly and the department seeks as many federal match projects as possible to stretch the dollars, he said. Eight percent of the state DOT and district funding comes from the Federal Highway Administration. Those federal officials expect the department to go after engineers who commit errors, he said.

“New Mexico is the first in the country to do a contractor prequalification,” he said. That’s not just bonds, insurance and paperwork, he said, “The contractors’ prequalification that we are using right now, because we are a low-bid state, we were on the losing end of that for decades. To get best value for the taxpayers, our prequalification grades a contractor on several criteria, including safety, time, on budget and change orders.”

The old way of “bidding low to sue high” is being eliminated and the state is seeing some great performances out of the contractors, because they are being scored, Parker said.

He showed a chart listing other projects in the county on U.S. 54, U.S. 70 and NM48, and charts breaking down work on NM48 by the DOT road yards in Capitan and on U.S. 70 from the Hondo yard, as well as future projects such as $2 million for work on Texas Curve on Ski Run Road, an $800,000 bridge replacement on NM48 and $5 million for pavement reconstruction on U.S. 70. He noted recent planning and work on drainage along U.S. 70 near K-Bobs restaurant in Ruidoso.

“We’re not in the ski business, but we are in the business of getting people there safely and these curves are dangerous,” he said of the work on Ski Run Road locally and in other communities with ski areas. The roads are important to local economies, because they serve visitors from surrounding states and Mexico, who come to ski, he said.

Construction costs never get cheaper, he said. “It’s very challenging when you have the same amount (of budget) every year since 2008,” Parker said. “We do more with less. We were ranked on a national website as number one last year and four years ago as getting the most value for the dollar and we do that by using our own forces and doing more for less.”

Commissioner Tom Stewart asked about installing more signs to alert drivers when White Sands Missile Range is firing tests and has closed the road ahead on U.S. 70 or U.S. 380.

Parker said the signs belong to the missile range, but are installed on state rights of way.

“I got calls this summer from concerned customers and three today,” he said. “There needs to be at least two more signs, one in Carrizozo headed out and one on U.S. 70. Our engineering department is working with White Sands, particularly coming from El Paso.”

Stewart said the signs need to be flashing, otherwise people don’t always notice them. Parker agreed and said he is working with Taylor on the issue, which is important for the region.

Parker also cautioned that communities should not begin projects until they have the guarantee of matching money in hand. If they end up not being able to cover their match, the district engineer now is responsible, not the state office, he said.

He holds back about $750,000 a year from his maintenance budget to cover for lawsuit, inability to participate and to hedge other risks. Five years ago, the department didn’t worry about that, but today, every projects is loaded with a team of lawyers, he said.

As a parting request, Commissioner Dallas Draper asked Parker if the district had appropriate property the county could acquire inexpensively to create a new road yard. The school district has asked for the current road yard land to expand its campus in Capitan.

“Write me a letter and we’ll consider it,” Parker said.