Input sought on future Alameda redesign
Meeting Wednesday set to take comments
Future improvements to Alameda Boulevard, from the Interstate 25 frontage road west to Edith Boulevard, will likely include a wider roadway with bicycle lanes, landscaping and some sidewalk work.
But before any of these improvements are adopted, highway engineers and planners want to hear from the public about their concerns and ideas during a meeting that will be held Wednesday, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on the second floor of the AndersonAbruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum.
The museum, at 9201 Balloon Museum Dr. NE, lies just north of the Alameda corridor. The open house format meeting is being sponsored by the City of Albuquerque in cooperation with the New Mexico Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.
Lead project manager, Andrew
Varoz, an engineer with the city’s Department of Municipal Development, said he anticipates that the improvements will include a widened roadway with three lanes of traffic in each direction, on-street bicycle lanes in each direction, median landscaping, wider sidewalks for specific sections primarily on the north side of Alameda, and an extension of the multi-use trail on the south side of Alameda from Balloon Museum Drive to at least Jefferson, and possibly farther east.
During the meeting, a preliminary design report will be delivered and public comment and ideas will be solicited before a final design report is issued, Varoz said.
“This is still in its infancy at this point,” he said, noting that the final design may take another two years to complete and construction may not begin until sometime in 2021.
“This is a huge project and it will have to broken up into two phases,” Varoz said.
Phase one will be from I-25 frontage road west to Jefferson. That phase will mostly be funded with federal money and some contribution from the city. Phase two is from Jefferson west to Edith. Funding for this portion is still up in the air, he said.
The total cost of the corridor project is estimated at $15 million, although that depends on how many of the improvements are incorporated, Varoz said.