ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – After months of construction in Old Town, the road work along Mountain Road is finally coming to an end. Local business owners said it couldn’t come sooner.
Sidney Mallard owns the Next Best Thing To Being There shop right on the edge of Old Town. Since the construction moved in, she said her shop’s profits have taken a huge hit. “People don’t realize they can come through it. So they don’t, and then I don’t get business. It’s been since March like this, and I’m just ready for it to end,” said Mallard
She said in the past week, there have only been a handful of shoppers. “A few tourists, if it, may be able to find me. And that’s so that’s, that’s good. And they just kind of worked their way through all this weird signage out there,” Mallard explained.
The city’s water authority is replacing an old sewer line from the 60s that had reached the end of its life cycle. The construction had some scratching their heads when parts of Mountain Road had no visible crews, but the road was still closed.
“So work may be happening on one section, and you can’t really see what’s going on, on the part of the street that you’re on. But we still have to keep, we still have to keep the whole roadway closed and safe for the work and the excavation and the workers who have to be out there,” said David Morris with Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority.
Construction is expected to wrap up this weekend. The water authority said they were trying to get the project done in time for the Balloon Fiesta and said they have no other projects that could interfere with tourism for the season.
“It has to be finished or else, or else I’ll just be very sad,” said Mallard.
