Los Lunas roads to be completed

LOS LUNAS—The village of Los Lunas’ street division has a long list of projects hoping to be completed this summer.

The new turning lane at the intersection of N.M. 314 and Main Street right next to Blake’s Lotaburger is expected to be completed before the end of July.

The street division has to work with the New Mexico Department of Transportation to make sure everything was completed to design. It cost about $275,000 in construction and about $70,000 – $80,000 in design.

There is also construction on N.M. 314 from Courthouse Road to Morris Road that will improve bike lanes and create pedestrian walkways. Michael Jaramillo, the village’s public works director, said there were also improvements being made to the drainage systems in that area.

“We’ve never had strong water retention improvements in this corridor, so now we actually have collection sites that will direct storm water to flow into versus just flowing all over the sides of the roads,” Jaramillo said.

This project is expected to be completed in the month of July as well. Jaramillo said they were expecting everything at that location to be completed last month, but ran into a few errors that need to be corrected before the project could be completed.

“That means completed in every aspect,” Jaramillo said. “We’re saying that everything is operational and functional, and you won’t see any more traffic barrels there.”

There have also been the additions of deceleration lanes along N.M. 314 that allow for drivers to pull into a facility without slowing down traffic.

Another significant project going on is the Camelot extension project at Morris Road and Camelot Boulevard.

“Because we get such a grid lock on Main Street on N.M. 314, the objective is to have a way to route people around the community by going down Camelot, through this new extension in front of the correctional facility to Morris Road,” Jaramillo said.

Jaramillo hopes to have this project completed in August of this year. He said it is part of the master plan to alleviate some of the congestion on Main Street.

The Emilio Lopez and Main Street Improvement Project is set to start this month. A new right turn lane will be put in front of the Circle K and Wendy’s to alleviate traffic, especially after Los Lunas High School students leave the campus during the school year. Jaramillo said they hope to have this project completed before the new school year begins.

Jaramillo would like to continue on the East-West Corridor project, which would connect Interstate 25 to N.M. 47.

“We’re hoping to make an announcement on us progressing and moving towards that project which would be a major traffic improvement for here on Main Street,” Jaramillo said.

To learn more about the East-West Corridor project, visit loslunasnm.gov.