NM 128 road improvements moving forward
Christina Holt/News-Sun
The New Mexico Department of Transportation is moving forward with plans to make roadway improvements to New Mexico Highway 128 in the Jal area and west towards Eddy County.
The project is estimated to cost about $430 million to reconstruct New Mexico Hwy. 128 from the Texas state line east of Jal to New Mexico Hwy. 31 in Eddy County over the course of several years. The NMDOT is prioritizing intersections along the highway first and then plans to make improvements connecting the intersections.
NMDOT District 2 Engineer Francisco Sanchez and construction engineer Michael Smelker presented the highway improvement plan and consideration for a lighting agreement to Lea County Commissioners at its regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday morning in Lovington.
Sanchez presented the option for Lea County to enter into a lighting and maintenance agreement with NMDOT so that LED lights may be installed at intersections along the highway to increase safety.
In previous reports in the News-Sun, Sanchez has said Hwy. 128 is particularly dangerous for motorists. There were 831 crashes between 2012 through 2021 and 40 deaths, for example, according to data provided by NMDOT.
Lighting can reduce crashes up to 28 percent for nighttime injury crashes on rural and urban highways. Vehicles traveling at higher speeds at night may not have the ability to stop once a hazard becomes visible by the headlights, according to Sanchez.
“The lighting is not a requirement but an enhancement so that’s why it falls back onto the local community (to pay for the electricity and maintenance),” Sanchez said.
“We don’t have to put these lights in, but it’s an added safety and it’s a great way for the county to partner” with NMDOT on the project, District 2 Lea County Commissioner Brad Weber said.
The intersections are divided into priority items by the NMDOT. The first part of the project to improve the intersection of Hwy. 18 and Hwy. 128 in Jal is expected to begin this summer, according to Smelker.
“Right now, we have $150 million in funding ready to be invested on 128,” Sanchez said. “We have funding now for Jal. It’s a $50 million investment and a majority of that was provided by a house bill.”
The plan in Jal is to build a three-lane roadway to include a center turning lane that is 14 feet wide, two driving lanes that are 13 feet wide and two shoulders that are 6 feet wide. A curb, gutter and five-foot sidewalks are also in the plan.
NMDOT plans to install two traffic signals at NM Highways 128 and 18 and at NM Highway 128 and 3rd St.
“(The traffic signals) will be coordinated so traffic will be timed and can get through there,” Sanchez said. “Sometimes you’re looking at 34 minutes to get through.”
Other top priorities in the overall project include the intersections of Hwy. 128 at Brininstool Road, Delaware Basin Road and Battle Axe Road, all west of Jal. These intersections are expected to cost about $42 million.
The intersections could possibly “go out for production next July and start probably sometime next December,” Smelker, the DOT construction engineer, said.
Further down the list but still labeled high priority are the intersections where Buck Jackson Road and Orla Road cross NM Highway 128 estimating to cost about $32 million.
The construction for the intersection at Orla Road could potentially start “next fall sometime,” Smelker said.
The intersections will include center turning lanes with curbs for oversized vehicles and four lanes for continuous traffic, according to Smelker.
Some of the NM Highway 128 improvements will continue on into Eddy County to include part of NM Highway 31.
The intersection at Hwy. 128 and the road leading to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is expected to cost about $18 million and the improvements on NM Highway 31 are expected to cost about $48 million.
According to the expected $430 million budget, that would leave about $240 million for road improvements that are in between the intersections.
The lighting and maintenance agreement with NMDOT was a discussion item on the agenda, so no formal vote was taken on the agreement.
