New Mexico has indefinitely postponed $500 million worth of 29 high-priority road projects involving 300 miles of roadway, the Albuquerque Journal reported Friday, Dec. 14.
The biggest losers dollar-wise, according to the newspaper, include the Navajo Nation, drivers on U.S. 54 in the central part of the state and users of U.S. 64 in northern New Mexico. Other losers include drivers jockeying for position on the crowded stretch of I-25 between Bernalillo and the Tramway exit at the north end of Albuquerque.
“I’m sure we’ll have everyone upset because these projects are not up here, but what do you do when you are $500 million short?” Transportation Secretary Rhonda Faught told the Journal. “We have no money.”
The commission was forced to cut half a billion dollars because New Mexico’s $2.7 billion high-priority transportation program called GRIP I – for Gov. (Bill) Richardson’s Investment Partnership – is short by that amount, the newspaper reported.
