Hondo Valley

New Mexico's Hondo Valley - immortalized in the John Wayne film Hondo and by the exploits of Billy the Kid - has always had a reputation for danger.

Gunfights and mayhem aren't issues any longer but danger still lurks on the section of U.S. Highway 70 stretching across the valley from Ruidoso east to Riverside. The narrow and winding two-lane road averages 10 to 12 deaths a year, twice that of other rural roads.

Now, crews from Sierra Blanca Constructors, a joint venture company, are turning the dangerous stretch of road into a new, four-lane highway with wide shoulders and a turning lane. The improvements are aimed at cutting accidents and improving traffic flow in and out of the valley.

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Approximately 4,000 to 6,000 vehicles use the road each day.

"The death rate before we showed up was tremendous," said construction team member Steve Folk, an employee of project engineer URS in Albuquerque. "But we haven't had a fatal accident since we started construction, even with the lane closures and various difficulties that come with a 38-mi. project."

Sierra Blanca Constructors was formed as a joint venture between Granite Construction of Watsonville, Calif.; Sundt Construction of Tucson, Ariz.; and James Hamilton Construction of Silver City, N.M. |

When completed, the team's project through Hondo Valley, along with a 5-mi. section being constructed in Ruidoso by Albuquerque's J.R. Hale, will finally link the eastern and western borders of New Mexico with a four-lane road.

The U.S. 70 job is a first for the state of New Mexico, with the state Legislature approving the alternative-delivery method of design-build for the $129 million project.
The type of delivery method allows designers and contractors to build and turn over a project at a much quicker pace, with contractors eyeing a spring 2005 completion.
Work started in August 2002.

"Design-build allows a lot of creativity and innovation for not only the contractor and designer but the owner," said David Smith, Sierra Blanca project manager. "The designer and owner can make adjustments to the design and if they do it in a timely manner, it can be done at minimal cost."

Contractors recently started paving the eastern and western sections of the project using a new, high performance "perpetual" paving. The Super Pave 2 asphalt, which boasts a 30-year life, is being applied in three, 2.5-in. lifts on top of a 6-in. base course, topped off with a friction course.

Contractors will use 900,000 tons of asphalt in the road.

The two-lane road that winds through the valley features a variety of soil conditions.

Sandy and silty soils lower in the valley combined with hard rock where the road clings to the mountains, resulted in 1.4 million cu. yds. of excavation to prepare roadbeds for paving.

"It's a typical valley setting down by the rivers, with a lot of loose alluvial materials," said geotechnical engineer Joe Laird of Albuquerque's office of Kleinfelder Inc. "On the uphill side, there were hard rock layers and we had to deal with rock mass properties and lot of falling rock."

Demolition expert Curtis Been of Hachita, N.M. is blasting more than 400,000 cu. yds. of rock where cuts are necessary for the road to pass. Two- and 3-in. boreholes are drilled more than 8 -ft. into the rock and then small explosive charges are inserted to create a series of closely timed "micro blasts." The small blasts lessen vibration, noise and flying rock.

"We are limited in the size of shots and the materials we can use," Been said. "It's difficult, because the geotechnical formations change so much."

While most area residents recognized the need for the improved road, the communities of Ruidoso and Ruidoso Downs had concerns about the impact of the project, not only economically but culturally and environmentally.

With 350 private entrances exiting onto U.S. 70, historic "acequias" or hand-dug ditches along the route and historical and archeological sites, constructors needed extensive planning to identify potential problems.

Preserving the acequias, some more than 150 years old, posed several problems.

Workers needed to construct retaining walls, but could only build them from the uphill side to protect the ditches. Crews drove "H" steel soldier piles and then slid precast concrete panels in, which were back-filled. The project also features extensive use of geo grid material to stabilize fills and six bridges spanning rivers and washes.

The project team developed an extensive public outreach effort to educate residents about the project and alleviate any concerns. Teams held open houses and spoke at local meetings to get residents' input. Much of the focus was on the road's effect on the environment.

"Before, a majority of people were against this project," said Ralph Meeks, a project engineer with the New Mexico Department of Transportation. "Now, a majority (of residents) are on board and can't wait to see the completed project."

>New Mexico Gets a GRIP
>Pojuaque Corridor
>Hondo Valley