The final route has been picked for the planned 8.3-mile Border Highway Connector from Santa Teresa to Sunland Park, New Mexico, on the edge of West El Paso.
The new highway, projected to cost about $150 million, will add an additional connection from Santa Teresa, a border logistics hub, to El Paso's highway system.
The route is essentially the same as the preferred route announced in May by New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) officials, with an alteration at the route’s end near Anapra Road in Sunland Park.
It will begin at Pete Domenici Highway, at a new intersection about two miles north of the Santa Teresa port of entry to Mexico.
Just over five miles of the new highway will go through vacant land in the Santa Teresa area, and almost three miles will run near the Union Pacific Railroad line through Sunland Park.
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It’s designed to ease growing traffic from freight trucks and commuter vehicles on Pete Domenici Highway, which connects the port of entry and Santa Teresa industrial parks to Artcraft Road and Interstate 10 in El Paso, project officials have said.
It also will provide another way in and out of Santa Teresa if an emergency closes Pete Domenici Highway.
"It’s a game changer," said Jerry Pacheco, president of the Border Industrial Association in Santa Teresa, of the planned highway. The association recruits companies to Santa Teresa's four industrial parks.
“It gives us a new set of ingress and egress into the (Santa Teresa) industrial parks," Pacheco said. "So, it will make it easier for firms, suppliers, and employees to get in and out of the parks and connect us” to El Paso’s Loop 375 highway system, “and you’re anywhere in the metro area very quickly."
Sunland Park Drive extension part of new highway
An extension of Sunland Park Drive will be built from McNutt Road to the new highway, instead of the previous plan to connect only to Anapra Road, Bert Thomas, Bohannan Huston engineering firm vice president and project manager, said at the Dec. 11 project open house in Sunland Park. The Albuquerque firm was hired by the New Mexico Border Authority to study and engineer the project.
The final selection also was presented at a Dec. 12 public meeting.
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Sunland Park city officials requested the Sunland Park Drive extension, Thomas said. The new highway will still connect to Anapra Road, but the extension will be the main link to El Paso, he said.
The highway’s design is expected to be completed in the summer. Construction could begin by the end of 2025 or early 2026, and be completed in 2028 or 2029, Thomas said.
New Mexico highway's projected cost is $150 million
The project is projected to cost about $150 million, with about $90 million for the first phase, Thomas said. It will be funded with federal and state money.
In June, a NMDOT spokesperson reported the cost at $79 million. That's money currently allotted for the project, the spokesperson clarified on Dec. 13.
The entire highway will be built in the first phase, but with only one lane on each side for the first 5½ miles through Santa Teresa and to a new bridge over railroad tracks near the Camino Real landfill in Sunland Park, Thomas noted.
Another lane is to be added to each side of the 5½-mile stretch in the proposed second phase, which is to cost about $60 million, he said.
In the first phase, two lanes will be built on each side of almost three miles of the highway from the railroad bridge to the Sunland Park Drive extension, he said. The extension will also have two lanes on each side.
A multi-use trail will be built along the four-lane segment of the highway's first phase and added to the Santa Teresa portion in the second phase.
Highway noise concern for Sunland Park residents
Gloria Irigoyen and her brother Cesar Irigoyen said the new highway should benefit Sunland Park by drawing some of the heavy truck traffic off McNutt Road, the small city’s major thoroughfare.
However, they’re concerned about the highway’s noise infiltrating the Buena Vista neighborhood, where they and other family members live in separate houses, they said at the Dec. 11 project open house at Desert View Elementary School in Sunland Park. The new highway will go near the school.
“Sound barriers need to be considered” even though officials have said none are needed, Gloria Irigoyen said.
Thomas said an analysis showed that vehicles’ noise on the highway wouldn’t meet decibel levels required by federal regulations to install noise barriers near residential areas.
Alta Mesa Estates developer wanted different route
Developer Terry McLachlan lobbied for a route closer to his proposed Alta Mesa Estates near the industrial parks in Santa Teresa. The development is projected to eventually have more than 4,400 homes and apartments.
"We certainly do not want to hold the project up. And we will benefit; the whole area will benefit by the Border Connector Highway," McLachlan said. "We're just going to roll with it."
But he hopes his preferred route, which connects with the existing Columbus Highway, will be built in the future.
NMDOT officials expect to begin buying Santa Teresa-area land for the project early next year. Most of the vacant land is owned by El Paso real estate investor Chris Lyons' Santa Teresa Land LLC, NMDOT information shows.
An environmental assessment of the project is underway. A public hearing on the draft assessment is expected to be held in January.
No major environmental concerns have been found, Thomas said. A species of protected cactuses may need to be moved, or the highway built around them, he also noted.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421; [email protected]; @vickolenc on Twitter, now known as X.