Northern New Mexico drivers who can remember the construction work on U.S. 84/285 of summers past should steel themselves for more.

The state is planning a $68 million face-lift for the highway that will mean orange barrels until the summer of 2011.

Already, some work has begun on the major reconstruction and expansion project, which will rehabilitate the highway from Pojoaque to Española, and add two-way frontage roads on both sides.

The project, in the works for several years, aims to make the highway safer, Department of Transportation spokesman S.U. Mahesh said.

"The bottom line is making the highway more safe by eliminating driveways that run into the highway," he said.

The project will put concrete barriers in the median so drivers cannot cross in front of oncoming traffic to turn into driveways and businesses on the other side of the freeway. The new frontage roads will be separated from the highway by a cable. Driveways that now meet up with the highway will intersect with frontage roads instead.

As part of the work, crews also will expand turn lanes and highway access lanes and rebuild several intersections, including at Pojoaque, the La Puebla turnoff and the "Dreamcatcher intersection" south of Española, where the movie theater is.

The project will be done in five segments, two of which are funded by federal stimulus money. The work was part of Gov. Bill Richardson's Investment Partnership, or GRIP, which fell short of the money it originally was expected to have. Some of the segments will be done simultaneously.

The department plans to keep the public informed about the project through local media outlets, message boards and e-mails.

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog at www.greenchilechatter.com.

U.S. 84/285 AT A GLANCE

First built as a divided highway: 1975. Before that, it was a two-lane highway.

Vehicles per day: 24,000

Volume expected by 2026: 46,000.

The highway and its drivers are no strangers to construction:

• From 2002 to 2005, the state spent about $80 million to improve the highway from Santa Fe to Pojoaque.

• From the summer of 2006 to the fall of 2007, the department worked on a mile-long, $5.2 million project at the Nambé interchange.

• In September 2007, the department did two miles of rehabilitation north of Nambé. The $2.76 million project was finished in the summer of 2008.

• In December, the department started the $8.5 million reconstruction of what's known as the "Dreamcatcher intersection" outside of Española. That work, which will realign the intersection at N.M. 106 and N.M. 399, is expected to be done this fall. The entire project, which improves the road from Pojoaque to Española, is expected to be complete in the summer of 2011.


Source: State Department of Transportation