Spring 2025 start anticipated for Unser widening project

PDV extension a 'game changer' as NMDOT studies next part

Paseo del Volcan, a connecting road vital to Rio Rancho's community, has been a two decades-…

A section of Unser Boulevard will be widened next year.

The city of Rio Rancho held a virtual public meeting July 24, presented by project manager Arnell Friedt, to inform the community and address any concerns from residents.

"From today to the winter of 2024 we are still continuing to update the design and then from there, we anticipate construction beginning in the spring of 2025," Friedt said.

The project is still in design stages.

"As many of you know, Unser Boulevard is located in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, and it's one of the two north-south streets that serve the area along the unincorporated areas of Sandoval County. Unser Boulevard is serving as the original principal arterial within the Albuquerque metropolitan planning area," he said.

This phase of the project, Phase Two B, actually began as an alignment study in 2004 and extends from Cherry Road to Paseo del Volcan on Unser. Phase Two as a whole stretches past that to Progress Boulevard on the north side of King Boulevard.

The project will widen the road between Cherry Road and Paseo del Volcan to two lanes on each side of a median. Friedt added that there is potential to widen to three lanes in future as the median takes up 54 feet.

Many factors have impacted the timeline of the project, but Friedt says the two main ones are construction funding and the right-of-way process.

The city clarified that "“The anticipated spring 2025 construction of the Unser Blvd Widening project is ambitious specifically because it relies upon design approval, financing, and procurement of a contractor, which are not completely under the City’s control. Though the City will strive to meet this timeline, the City of Rio Rancho will begin construction as soon as practicable. A second public information meeting will be scheduled in the near future.”

"In addition to these changes, we do have a 6-foot bike lane along the roadway and each direction," he said.

There will also be an updated pedestrian path, LED lights and storm drains incorporated into the project.

Many of the questions from the public had to do with the Paseo del Volcan extension project, which Friedt said was not the city's jurisdiction. Sandoval County and the New Mexico Department of Transportation are heading that project.