Oil patch toll road

Private firms would pay for construction: Pearce

HOBBS — Republican gubernatorial hopeful Steve Pearce is calling for a system of toll roads in southeastern New Mexico to serve booming oil field and other commercial traffic around one of the mostproductive oil and gas areas in the world.

Pearce, who is forgoing a bid for re-election to his southern New Mexico-based congressional seat, unveiled the plan speaking to business leaders in Carlsbad last week, and he mentioned it again on Monday during a candidate forum in Albuquerque. He said it would be financed by private companies and without taxpayer dollars. Its aim would help traffic coming from the Delaware Basin, an oval-shaped shale rock formation that protrudes from southwest Texas northward into New Mexico’s Eddy and Lea counties.

Modern drilling technologies have turned that zone into one of the most-productive oil and gas regions on the planet.

But traffic from heavy oil trucks has damaged roads and created dangerous conditions as police contend with an increasing number of automobile fatalities in the area, the Hobbs News-Sun reports.

“The roads are overcrowded and stressed beyond capacity, creating an unsafe situation for our New Mexico families and

workers,” Pearce said in Carlsbad. New Mexico now has no toll roads. Pearce said, if elected governor, he would work to secure commitments from companies to completely finance and build the new toll roads in Lea and Eddy counties.

“The tolls will be used to maintain the roads and to recoup the companies’ investments,” he said. “Taxpayer dollars will not be used, and in fact, these investments made by the companies will save tax dollars through reduced wear and tear on our public roads.”

Pearce is running against Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., for governor.

Grisham spokesman James Hallinan dismissed Pearce’s idea, calling it an “out of touch plan” at a time when New Mexico families and businesses are struggling to get by.

“Michelle Lujan Grisham has released multiple comprehensive policy plans to rebuild our infrastructure and economy to make New Mexico a safer and more prosperous place for our children and families,” Hallinan said.

At a price tag of about $2 million per mile for two-lane roads, Pearce estimated building 130 miles of toll roads would cost about $260 million.

ROBERTO E. ROSALES/JOURNAL Big trucks transport heavy drilling equipment around southeastern New Mexico’s oil patch. The area’s truck traffic has damaged public roads and created dangerous conditions, resulting in an increased number of accidents.

These pumpjacks are scattered throughout the oil fields in the Loco Hills region, located between Artesia and Hobbs in southeastern New Mexico’s highly productive Delaware Basin.