Intersection improvements criticized

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A busy intersection near Balloon Fiesta Park recently received a $500,000 facelift, but at least one official said it was not money well-spent.

The city recently finished installing new traffic light poles, handicapped access and longer turn lanes at Alameda Boulevard and Balloon Museum Drive in Albuquerque's North Valley this summer. The city received both state and federal money to help pay for the project.

“We thought it was a waste of money,” said Steven Wentworth, vice chair of the Balloon Fiesta Park Commission and Alameda North Valley Association president.

> Download a PDF of the plans for the proposed intersection improvements

That’s because the same intersection likely will have to be re-improved again in the near future because it will eventually become part of a brand new $26 million by-pass route to be called Channel Road.

"Channel Road was first conceived by the state, again as part of the Paseo/I-25 project as part of a local commuter route, a by-pass route," said Michael Riordan, municipal development director.

The city hopes to break ground on the first phase of the road near Osuna and Hawkins this fall. It will be built in phases and is expected to be completed by 2025.

But Riordan said the state mandated that the money be spent on Alameda/Balloon Museum Drive intersection by a certain time.

Wentworth said the money could have been better spent at Balloon Fiesta Park itself, and that the city should have waited to improve the intersection.

"We need restrooms, we need potable water, we need sewer," he said. "The intersection was working before. It's worked for the last 20 years. So I didn't see the need for it.”