http://youtu.be/uscsRxPnehg
Doña Ana County received a $9 million grant through the Federal Land Access Program to pave Baylor Canyon road and Dripping Springs Road and make it easier to visit the Organ Mountain Desert Peaks National Monument.
The Doña Ana County Commission approved the $9 million dollars in grant money along with about $800,000 in matching funds from the County in December, and is now looking into different possibilities for the road.
David Wallace, Assistant District Manager for the Bureau of Land Management says that after listening to public comment they are now doing an environmental assessment for different road options, not just completely paving both of the roads.
“One option would be to pave Dripping Springs and gravel Baylor Canyon,” Wallace said. “Which was identified in the scoping comments by the public, a third option was to gravel Dripping Springs Road and pave Baylor Canyon Road. No one from the public really identified that as a viable alternative.”
Wallace says they are also doing an environmental assessment for if both roads remain unpaved.
Many of the people who had concerns with the road being paved, didn’t want to see it turned into a high-speed bypass.
Wallace says that is not the purpose of the project, and they are taking measures against that.
“The road will be designed, particularly Dripping Springs and especially Baylor Canyon, for 35 mph maximum speed limit” Wallace said. “Now Dripping Springs crosses a number of arroyos with low water crossings, which the speed limit through those low water crossings will be 25 mph. So, as far as, the speed on the road itself that’s really not a function of the road it’s a function of the driver , as well as potential enforcement of the speed limit.”
Doña Ana County Commissioner Wayne Hancock also says it shouldn’t turn into a bypass.
“They did an analysis,” Hancock said. “And it takes longer to go by Baylor Canyon, and if the commission decides that it should be a gravel road, then it is pretty much how it is now, but it will have better drainage.”
Another concern was free-range cattle, but Wallace says they have been working closely with the rancher that will be affected.
“The road will be signed relative to open-range,” Wallace said. “And that there is roaming livestock, so it will be identified to the users of that road. Coupled with the speed limit, and the visibility because the road instead of being entrenched, as it is now, the road will actually be designed with a lifted base. So, it will have a little bit of an elevation from the normal range soils level.”
Commissioner Hancock says he hopes that the project will encourage more people to visit the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument.
“We hope that there is a good plan by the friends of the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument,” Hancock said. “And we hope that that plan will incorporate that road.”
There will be another public comment session when the environmental assessment is complete at the beginning of May, and the Commission is expected to vote on a plan for the road in June.
