SUNLAND PARK, New Mexico (Border Report) – Northwest El Paso resident Hector Dozal has seen traffic volumes soar in the past three years around Artcraft Road and Westside Drive.
That’s not just due to new home construction in the area, but also because of hundreds of commercial trucks commuting between nearby Interstate 10 and the Santa Teresa, New Mexico, port of entry 18 miles south-southwest.
Dozal welcomed news that officials in New Mexico are considering an alternate route for many of those trucks.
“It’s been crazy in the last 36 months. Traffic is horrible in the morning – Borderland, Westside Drive, Upper Valley, Artcraft. Maybe for us residents of that area it’s better if it’s diverted,” he said. “If people already are coming through Santa Teresa port of entry, I think spreading the avenues of where they go into El Paso and I-10 might be better.”
That could happen once the planned Border Highway Connector becomes a reality. The preliminary design for the $86 million four-lane highway between the port of entry and the southern edge of Sunland Park could be ready by next September and construction a go by 2026, a senior project manager for Albuquerque engineering firm Bohannan Huston said on Friday.
Leaders in Santa Teresa and in Sunland Park say the highway to be built 1.7 miles north of the U.S. border wall could bring much new development and business opportunities for the two communities. But it will also bring more traffic to Sunland Park.
“We have a tremendous amount of residential and industrial development right now and we need another point of ingress to the Sunland Park area and to Santa Teresa (industrial parks),” said Jerry Pacheco, president and CEO of the Border Industrial Association. “It’s going to give us a quicker way to get to and from El Paso. Suppliers will be able to move product from the Santa Teresa area faster.”
That, in turn could lure more trucks and even passenger vehicles from Mexico to use the border crossing, which coupled with its adjacent industrial parks has become one of New Mexico’s fastest-growing economic engines.
The connector “is a game-changer for us,” Pacheco said. “Plus, it takes pressure off Artcraft Road and Pete Domeneci Highway. It’s a four-lane highway, so it’s a big piece of infrastructure in the region.”
Sunland Park residents approached by Border Report outside businesses along McNutt Road on Monday said they were unaware of the new highway.
City Council Rep. Alberto Jaramillo said those who know about it have mixed feelings.
“Ordinary people, they don’t know our need for foot traffic, so they’re scared of having commercial traffic here in the city,” he said. “But when it comes to economics, we believe that foot traffic to help our city to grow and develop. I support it as long as it’s not dangerous for us.”
By foot traffic he means more people from outside passing through the community and maybe stopping for services or patronize new or established businesses. Sunland Park has 16,000 residents and is directly across the state line from West El Paso.
City Manager Mario Juarez-Infante acknowledged some residents are concerned about additional truck traffic and possible traffic accidents and fatalities. He called those concerns a “fair argument.”
But he said the Border Highway Connector has the potential to become an economic catalyst for Sunland Park the way U.S. 70 helped Las Cruces, N.M., develop eastward.
“What has that done? It’s exponentially grown Las Cruces. They have a new high school, a Walmart, a medical facility and everything else that creates jobs. It is a catalyst for economic development,” Juarez-Infante said.
A YouTube video posted by Bohannan Huston shows a dramatization of what the Border Highway Connector would look like. It shows a highway cutting through empty desert with an overpass as it runs south of a town, presumably Sunland Park.
Juarez-Infante said the exact point where the Border Highway Connector sends traffic through Sunland Park at this point is the intersection of McNutt Road and the New Mexico portion of Sunland Park Drive.
Port of entry traffic would slow down by a four-way stop at the end of the connector; trucks would then make a left turn towards El Paso or a right turn towards the Santa Teresa port of entry.
For more information of to opine about the project, contact BorderHighwayConnector@bhinc.com or call 501-264-0111.
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