HWY 11 & the Palomas Road Connection

Letter to community leaders :

April 10, 2025

REF: Columbus to I-10/I-25 Traffic Route Proposals

Dear Luna County Commissioners and Deming City Councilors:

Thank you for providing the opportunity to weigh in on a proposed new trucking route between Columbus and I-10/I-25.  The "meeting", concerning the proposed “new” routes to expedite moving commercial vehicles between Palomas, MX and Interstate 10, could best be described as putting lipstick on a pig.  The contractor trotted out their 2020 version that, even then, was sorely lacking in substance.  At a new design cost of $400,000 this rehash of old graphics leaves us hoping there will be more of an investment in time and planning before the next meeting.  Oh yeah - the "meeting" simply had large format graphics on poster easels with the contractors milling around to answer questions. No presentation.  Is the public paying twice for the same shoddy work? I couldn't find the details of that study on the County website using a variey of search criterion. Shouldn't that be public information? How did "Option 2" already become the "preferred" solution when the public hasn't had a chance to weigh in?

The displayed slides were emailed to me in a large "D" size format that was difficult to open or even view on our most common devices, such as a tablet or phone. Note to contractors - if you really want the public to give input at least make it easy for them to see what you want them to think about. Please put useful documents in a new page on the County website, complete with a link to an Arc GIS Online (AGOL) webmap. If the county can't host it then host your own site. Allocate some of that design money on better community communication. If a low income retiree like me can do it, then so should you. (Of course, if you are accepting federal highway monies for this project you will have to meet all NEPA requirements, which include in-depth studies on all proposed routes, even those not selected. Doing this from the start limits the possibility of prolonged delays from community lawsuits.)

The large format maps were barely useful as they 1) omitted common major road names and 2) didn't differentiate along the routes between existing roads and proposed new roads. (Even Chris Brice, county manager, and one of the contractors, disagreed on one route's new road vs existing road status -- while looking at the map!) At least use a different symbology for these two road types, perhaps a broken line for new roads.

I propose a different route east of the Floridas from Columbus to Akela Junction, with a short spur to the Hatch Highway. An Akela/East Floridas route uses substantial existing right of way (ROW), existing I-10 infrastructure, avoids new interchanges, and enhances commercial development at an already established site, while meeting the primary objective of new federally funded highways - to make our local roads safer.  I have provided (attached) justification, based on your own ill defined “Evaluation Criterion”, as well as maps and an AGOL viewer link enabling data views for those maps, for your consideration. https://arcg.is/fGPL  (I turned on all of the layers so they are available in the map viewer, but you can turn any of them off/on for varied considerations.) Please see the below document for details.

Respectfully,

Mary Meade
419 S. Silver Ave
Deming NM 88030
850-890-6511