New Mexico Gets a GRIP
By Scott Blair

New Mexico is facing an $11 billion list of highway upgrades and replacements.

It's a state with a growing population increasingly on the move and swelling interstate truck traffic - and there are more than 7,000 lane mi. of New Mexico's highway system that are deficient and in need of replacement, according to the New Mexico Department of Transportation.

It has taken some innovative solutions to help fund the needed improvements.

advertisement

Approximately $1.2 billion of funding existed through the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program to help remedy the crumbling infrastructure. However, to meet the increasing need for more funding, Gov. Bill Richardson, >> along with the New Mexico Transportation Commission and the Department of Transportation, came up with a creative plan last year to upgrade and improve highways throughout the state.

They created what was dubbed Gov. Richardson's Investment Partnership, or (GRIP).

"The central part of GRIP is a $1.4 billion funding program that utilizes bonding, pay-as-you-go and other financing programs to pay for 41 highway reconstruction projects statewide over an eight-year period," Richardson said in a statement issued when the program was unveiled.

The package made it quickly through the Legislature and was signed into law in November, allowing the state to take advantage of historically low interest rates. "A one point rise in interest rates costs us $131 million in lost bonding capacity," Richardson said.

The program's goals are not limited to just better roads. The state hopes to spawn economic growth, create more than 50,000 new jobs over the life of the program, reduce the state's high roadway accident rate and expand alternate modes of transportation. The state has identified highways that serve as economic corridors, both regionally and nationally, and will utilize GRIP to improve these thoroughfares of commerce to spur economic growth in virtually every county of the state.

Another goal is to have as many New Mexico companies working on the construction projects as possible. While the projects will all be bid out, they are whenever possible being tailored to the right size for in-state contractors.

"The scope and size of the bid packages will be in the $10 million to $15 million range for the majority of the projects, because we don't have many contractors in-state who can perform mega-projects," said Richard Harris, executive vice president of the Associated Contractors of New Mexico.

The department of transportation also hopes to utilize alternative delivery methods such as design-build on some of the projects, even though under current New Mexico law, legislative approval would be required on each design-build project.

While some of the projects have been in the planning stages for years, most of the major ones still need to cross various hurdles before they get under way, such as securing environmental studies, setting the scopes of each bid package, and procuring funding.

"The first six projects are now scheduled for a bid opening date of June 26," Harris said. "We are pleased to see these first projects come to fruition."

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