Paseo del Volcan expansion a 'horizon' project

Local, county and state leaders see the Paseo del Volcan expansion project as a key development for job creation in Sandoval County.

Dora Dominguez, director of Sandoval County Economic Development and Tourism, noted the industry growth along Interstate 40 at Atrisco in Bernalillo County, including the Amazon warehouse and the temporary Tempur-Pedic mattress facility. “And they’re growing and growing and growing,” she said.

“Well, from there trucks unload, make their deliveries, make their semi-truck U-turns and they go back on Atrisco, head back west or they go east. It’s only a matter of time before they’re going to need another connector to I-25,” she added during a Rio Rancho Regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon focusing on infrastructure.

And for Dominguez and others, the Paseo del Volcan expansion is that connector. “From Atrisco, no pun intended, I can see Paseo del Volcan from the parking lot of the Amazon distribution center. Double Eagle Airport is there; there’s air freight opportunities.”

“I know Paseo del Volcan is a major project the you all are interested in to get industry access here,” said Ricky Serna, cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Transportation. “We’re trying to move this project long. We’re going to allocate, I think, 4 million bucks if not $6 million to push along right-of-way acquisition on that project.”

Dominguez said with the attention on the project, her office applied for a $3 million grant but only received less than a million, so they’re looking for other grants “since we go the announcement of the designation by the USDOT as an accelerator hub … to develop this. … I think NMDOT call us now sort of a ‘horizon’ project with Paseo del Volcan, so we’re excited. There’s some energy behind it.”

However, it will still take some time, she said.

“The partnership with Bernalillo County and Sandoval County, the short play is we gotta fix the infrastructure that’s there, but the reality is the trucks are coming, they’re unloading, they’re servicing all that industry cluster that’s happening there,” Dominguez said. “But the long play is that connector that’s going to take semi-truck traffic away from that nightmare of having to drive through Albuquerque and have an option to connect by way of (US) 550.”

From there, she said, they could continue north to Farmington or Cuba or back toward Santa Fe and connecting to I-25.

Mayor Gregg Hull noted that the city of Rio Rancho has partnered with federal, state and local agencies since 2006, when the first 3.9 miles of the road were built, and then helped contribute to the 3.4-mile extension from Iris Road to US 550. “Rio Rancho has been a partner in this project from the very onset … Rio Rancho is very vested and interested in the outcome of Paseo del Volcan because we believe there’s a lot of economic development opportunity that comes from this road … and attach to that I-40 corridor that is a main trucking corridor.”

“I-40, I think we all know, is a major trade corridor,” Dominguez said. “Eighty percent of the freight that comes into the Port of Long Beach is trucked across the country. … How do we then take what passes through here, how do we get those trucks to stop in New Mexico?”

Her vision? Create manufacturing jobs.

“When they come through, I-40 most especially, we want those trucks to leave full,” she said. “Deliver what you need to deliver, be we don’t want trucks anymore to leave empty-handed.

“Not everything that comes in by ships and freighters is already assembled. It’s components,” Dominguez said. “Those components coming through on I-40 need to be manufactured, put together. … That’s how you add economic development. Make it, and it supports industry; it supports job creation.”

She thinks, with the cost of manufacturing in California and rising, New Mexico is in a prime position to offer that industry.

“So we want to see that dynamic happen along I-40 for us here in the state of New Mexico: to put components together, finished goods, get supplies where they need to go and not just pass through New Mexico but stay manufacturing here,” she said. “Load those trucks so when they turn around and make their return trip, they’re loaded with finished projects.”