Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
DEPUTY EDITOR
A bill in the Legislature may speed up road construction in surrounding areas and provide jobs, according to its sponsor state Sen. Ron Griggs of Alamogordo.
“What this bill would do is put $100 million into one of the six transportation districts that we have,” Griggs said. “So, let's say it adds that amount to District 2 this year. Next year, it would be added to District 4, then District 5, until all districts receive the money.”
Clovis City Manager Joe Thomas said within the next two months, a bid to reconstruct Mabry Drive will be announced, and the project will start later this year “regardless of what happens with the bill.”
“I haven't looked at the bill, so I don't know the substance,” Thomas said Wednesday, “but certainly anything that would free up road construction from the state of New Mexico would be beneficial. We, many times, have to yield to the central court for road funding, so anything that would increase funding for projects in this area would be welcome.”
“Where we have probably the greatest risk is out on Mabry Drive from Prince to the east,” said Clovis Police Chief Steve Sanders.
Thomas said other roads scheduled for work include Highway 209, and that a bridge replacement at Frio Draw north of Clovis has already started.
“One of the long-term projects the city has tried encouraging the state to look at is the four-lane from Clovis to Santa Rosa. A four-lane from Clovis to Interstate 40 would be very beneficial,” Thomas said.
Curry County Manager Lance Pyle said some county roads are on a five-year plan, and that as far as state roads go, the county commission is interested in constructing a four-lane highway between Greer and Melrose.
“(Commissioner) Wendell Bostwick has been a proponent of that,” Pyle said. “Last week in Washington, D.C., he discussed (making it a four-lane) with federal delegation.”
“What I've asked for and why I've been visiting in Washington is for the Tiger Grant that helps fund highways that are used by the military,” Bostiwck said. “And so, they're supposed to be helping me look at that, and hopefully we can get some state funds.”
Bostwick said that from Greer to the Roosevelt/De Baca county lines, traffic would be an issue “in the next several years as they do more things on the (Melrose) bombing range and expand their capabilities.”
“On the drawing board they have several plans to build things up there,” Bostwick said. “They'll be changing some of their headquarters to another location and other operations eventually.”
Bostwick said the Cannon Air Force Base frequently uses the highway from Melrose going south to transport “a lot of things.”
“For that reason, it's got quite a bit of traffic on there anymore,” Bostwick said. “I think it's very important that we have our roads in consideration. We want to keep our military personnel safe, and to do that, you gotta have good highways.”
In regards to the “deadliest” highways, New Mexico Highway Patrol Lt. Cleo Baker said crashes they've handled are “scattered all over.”
“I wouldn't say that we have a deadliest road,” Baker said. “The interstate (I-40), by far, has the most crashes. But for this area, we don't see a lot of crashes.”
Baker said accidents are “pretty well-shared between” NMHP and local police department, and that just looking “offhand” at statistics from June and July of last year, the most crashes they handled were on U.S. 60/84.
Baker said that, overall, it's in “pretty good shape.”
“Some of those old secondary state roads are in worse shape,” he said. “Highway 60 is the worst through town from big trucks weathering it. Every quarter we try to look at wrecks and criminal stuff to see if there's a trend. We can't really say Highway 60 is a problem area. It is a pretty busy highway, so I think that contributes to (the number of accidents), too.”