{"id":33529,"date":"2023-06-08T01:21:11","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T01:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/aztec-east-arterial-bypass-in-citys-hands\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:10:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:10:56","slug":"aztec-east-arterial-bypass-in-citys-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/aztec-east-arterial-bypass-in-citys-hands\/","title":{"rendered":"Aztec East Arterial Bypass in city\u2019s hands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"View
View of designated arterial route under further review. (David Edward Albright\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The East Aztec Arterial project, in the planning and beginning stages for over two decades, finally appears ready to begin by going to bid.<\/p>\n

About 2\u00bd miles remain to be completed, but the terrain will require major engineering and earth moving, plus dealing with utility and gas lines.<\/p>\n

Jeff Blackburn, in his first year as Aztec city manager, said in a phone interview that \u201cthere\u2019s a lot to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blackburn was at a training in Santa Fe when interviewed. The training, held by the New Mexico Municipal League, that was attended by city managers and elected officials from around the state. He said he had recently received an email from the NMDOT project manager that addressed several \u201csmall certifications\u201d related to the project.<\/p>\n

Blackburn estimated that the idea has been around since the 1990s. Feasibility studies began in 2007 and were followed by the completion of Phase 1-A in 2009. This phase created a paved road off Highway 173 toward what became Tiger Park Sports Complex in 2010, and marked the beginning of the arterial project.<\/p>\n

Phase 1-B began in 2011 with the construction of the arterial route heading northeast off Highway 550, just east of Aztec.<\/p>\n

Phase 2 recently passed the New Mexico Department of Transportation review. DOT\u2019s role is oversight of the federal dollars, the process and standards.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff
Jeff Blackburn, Aztec city manager standing above Tiger Park Lake. (File photo)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe should be going to bid really quickly,\u201d Blackburn said, but declined to set a date in stone. \u201cIt gets me in trouble every time,\u201d he said, referring to setting a specific date. He added it appears to be close to going out to bid, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree that the ball is in our court and we\u2019re really glad that NMDOT is on the court with us and ready to go,\u201d Blackburn said.<\/p>\n

Blackburn said these projects sometimes take \u201cyears and years to get the money, the idea and the preliminary engineering.\u201d He said it will still take at least a couple of years to get the last 2\u00bd miles completed.<\/p>\n

City of Aztec project manager, Jeric Jaramillo, said a Plans, Specs and Engineering meeting will take place June 8 and will be a final review. He confirmed that the landfill issue remains to be rectified, but a waste management plan has been prepared by Souder-Miller and Associates in 2019.<\/p>\n

The removal of trash that was found in the corridor will be the step one when construction begins, Jaramillo said. Utility certifications have all been completed and reviewed by NMDOT.<\/p>\n

Jaramillo said the city is working with Enterprise Products Operating L.P., who will handle the relocation of a gas line. There remains a couple of confirmations of impacts from telephone and communication lines and rail certification, Jaramillo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur engineer has estimated 18 to 24 months for the completion of the project,\u201d Jaramillo said.<\/p>\n

Many Aztec citizens are eager to see the project completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will bring more business,\u201d said Susan Aguirre, seven-year owner of Lil Aztec Flower Shop<\/a>, 101 N. Main St. \u201cIt will take off the large oil field trucks \u2026 water trucks. They come down the hill from Bloomfield and they gain speed, so sometimes it\u2019s hard for them to negotiate. I believe we can tie it all together to have more businesses \u2018walkable\u2019. I live on the top of my business and the big trucks just shake the building.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project is expected to significantly decrease heavy oil and gas truck traffic. Those trucks coming from Highway 550 from Bloomfield, heading to Highway 173 (Navajo Dam Road) will be able to take the bypass to shorten the distance and avoid downtown Aztec.<\/p>\n

Blackburn said the final stretch of the project will be to redo the final stretch of NM 173 from Tiger Park, past the water treatment plant, to Highway 550 east of Aztec. Jaramillo confirmed in a phone interview that the NM173 redo will be an entirely new project.<\/p>\n

Budgetary considerations appear to be resolved, the original figure of $18 million is projected to be adequate. \u201cThat is what we\u2019re hearing. \u2026 Again we\u2019re relying on an engineer\u2019s estimate and he\u2019s saying we\u2019re well within that amount,\u201d Blackburn said.<\/p>\n

Blackburn said they had to be within a contingency amount, but since NMDOT is committed to the project, \u201cif there are cost overruns, we think our partners there are going to help us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Brasher, NMDOT District 5 engineer, said, \u201cThe design is complete. I think there is some action needed by the city of Aztec. \u2026 They\u2019re taking the lead on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

A landfill was encountered in the proposed bypass route, \u201cbut I believe they managed to mitigate that,\u201d Brasher said. Completion of the project \u201cwill really be a great contribution to the circulation in the community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brasher said he was not in a position to predict exactly when things would get underway. \u201cThere\u2019s some things Aztec\u2019s got to do \u2026 before it gets going,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a difficult corridor \u2026 I walked the centerline of it today (June 2) and it\u2019s got a lot of terrain, a lot of hills and valleys, a lot of arroyos to cross,\u201d Brasher said, and \u201cserious earthwork.\u201d He added that there are utilities and gas lines that will have to be dealt with as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NMDOT, city of Aztec working closely to complete project<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1240,459,28,557,1384],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-33529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-aztec","tag-construction-and-property","tag-headlines","tag-traffic","tag-u-s-highway-550"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82243,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33529\/revisions\/82243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33529"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=33529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}