We are now in the beginning of a multi-year highway construction project that will inconvenience many, anger all, hurt all businesses along the affected stretch of U.S. Highway 84/285 and force some to close. We’d like to say, “Look for that silver lining.”
But it appears two Indian pueblos and Rep. Ben Lujan (D, Nambé) have taken that silver lining away.
The initial impetus of the restructuring of the highway was to make the road safer. We have ourselves to blame for the unsafe use of the highway. Remember those folks entering traffic, coming across the median and pulling in front of you? You’re doing 50 miles per hour. They’re trying to get up to 30? Not safe and very stupid.
And those Pojoaque School District bus drivers? Wow! They belong in Vegas, the way they roll the dice and beat the odds in front of David Dear’s shop.
But the two worst things about the stretch of highway from Pojoaque to Española were the two intersections at La Puebla and the Dreamcatcher Theater. The issue there was some folks stopping at the red lights while some inattentive driver came from behind them plowed into them. Those two intersections saw 125 accidents and four deaths in four years.
So when the highway department approached the public in myriad public meetings, safety and the conversion of those two intersections into interchanges (overpasses for cross traffic) was top of the agenda. The public comments were clear: those intersections must be converted to interchanges.
And highway department mouthpieces agreed.
But Santa Clara Pueblo, Pojoaque Pueblo and Ben Lujan disagreed. Lujan’s buddy Luis Atencio didn’t like the plan either.
Santa Clara controls all the property surrounding the La Mesilla/Sombrillo intersection. That huge dirt lot that blows across the highway every spring is going to be developed one day and the pueblo doesn’t want it bypassed with a flyover. They want folks to have to stop at a light and see the signs of the future development.
Quite simply Lujan and Atencio didn’t want their property gobbled up for on and off ramps. So the highway department, in its infinite wisdom and caring for public safety, moved the La Pueblo intersection south on the northern boundary of Pojoaque Pueblo. The highway department offered the Pueblo $300,000 for its 14 acres. The Pueblo said, not a chance, $3 million.
Putting aside all the money, and there’s a bunch of it flying around on this project, and the politics, and there’s a bunch of that too, what does the public get out of this huge fiasco? In short: a newly paved highway and neat looking intersections.
Will the highway be safer? Maybe a little simply because frontage roads will force drivers to enter and exit at strategic points and merge with traffic properly.
But we’ll still have two deadly intersections, just with new lights and frontage road access.
The SUN and the Albuquerque Journal have been following this project in depth for a long time. The public doesn’t seem to care and state government truly doesn’t care. They’re moving forward with a bad plan, fraught with bad politics and worse decision making.
The ground is broken and we can’t turn back now but someone should take responsibility for this mess. We’ll be stuck with these unsafe intersections for another 20 years. How many people will be harmed or killed during that time just so Ben, Luis and our two “neighbors” could have their way?