Additional lanes closed for First and Florida realignment

ALAMOGORDO — The City of Alamogordo will be closing the outside eastbound lane of First Street on Monday, Feb. 27.

Project Manager Nancy Beshaler said the closure will push traffic to the lane closest to the median, which will give Mesa Verde's construction crew more room to work on the realignment.

In a previous interview with the Daily News, Beshaler said the project would unfold in three phases, starting with the South Florida leg of the realignment, the second phase would be the First Street portion of construction and the final phase would be the North Florida portion of construction. In the North Florida leg, the old Alamo MVD building at 801 E. First Street and a home at 800 Miami St. will be demolished.

City begins First and Florida realignment project

"Now they're kind of combining those first two phases together and I'm hoping it will speed up the project," Beshaler said. "They need to take that extra lane in order to give the equipment room to work. They're at the edge of the roadway now, where traffic is on First Street, and so that extra lane is going to give them more room to work safely."

The outside eastbound lane of First Street will be closed for the rest of the South Florida leg of the realignment project.

The city also announced they will be closing the outside westbound lane of First Street in early March in order to allow for some short-term utility work.

"The gas company has a line on First Street that they need to find and lower," Beshaler explained. "That should be short-term, like a day or two."

Currently, Mesa Verde's construction crew is cleaning up the First National Bank site and tearing out the roadway at South Florida so they can begin rebuilding it. Beshaler said crews are also doing underground work to put in a water line, cut and cap the sewer line and install storm drains.

"Everything's going great," Beshaler said. "Mesa Verde is a great contractor, they know what they're doing."

Project questions or issues may be directed to Beshaler at 439-4230 or via email at nbeshaler@ci.alamogordo.nm.us.