'No Plans for Bridge’
State: No plans for bridge anytime soon for highway

By Tris DeRoma
Monday, September 23, 2019 at 2:10 pm

During a series of contractor meetings and community events this summer, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s senior management revealed that they might request serious changes to New Mexico’s transportation system to accommodate commuters and improve the economic health of the region.

However, according to a statement written by New Mexico Department of Transportation’s District 5 Engineer Paul Brasher that won’t happen anytime soon.

“Our understanding is that LANL is preparing to spend approximately $5 billion over the next five years on LANL expansion projects, contributing to a corresponding population growth on the order of 1,000 a year. In planning for this expansion, LANL apparently envisions a shortage of housing in Los Alamos,” Brasher said in his letter, noting that LANL cited the need to accommodate the growth of commuters to Los Alamos through an additional transportation route to ease congestion and traffic.

“Consideration of this feasibility of such an alternate route is a concept that LANL may be exploring on its own initiative, there is no project in the District 5, statewide, transportation improvement program for funding other studies, or construction of an alternate connector route between New Mexico 599 and Los Alamos,” Brasher said.

According to a laboratory spokesman, that though they are a long way off, senior management has been talking about adding a bridge or a road between Los Alamos and Santa Fe counties.

“We do believe a new route off the mesa heading south would facilitate much needed economic development and new housing throughout the region and provide New Mexicans with better access to good-paying lab jobs,” a lab spokesman said.

Though the additional route doesn’t exist on paper yet, Patrick Sullivan, executive director of the Los Alamos Commerce and Development Corporation, said it is a good thing that community leaders are beginning to talk about an additional route, even though it is probably a long way off.

“In general, every time you have an easier an easier flow of people and information, things tend to build up around that,” Sullivan said.

He also said it’s good for economic development.

“Whether that’s connectivity of folks between Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Los Alamos… every time you can bring more people into the community, it’s better for local businesses because there’s more customers.”

Sullivan and others said that such a route could shave more than an hour off of a commute to the lab, the region’s largest employer. Not only could a faster route benefit the county’s tourism sector, but also help grow the community’s high tech sector as well.

“The ability to get to an airport down in Albuquerque quicker is very beneficial to start up businesses as they are trying to grow, meet with customers or hire potential employees,” Sullivan said. “Instead of a two-hour commute for someone coming in for an interview it’s down to an hour, which is no more than what you would get in New York or Washington.”

Officials with Pebble Labs, a startup located in Entrada Business Park that grew out of the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s tech transfer program was in agreement that an additional road could definitely help.

“Pebble Labs could benefit from a stronger connection between Los Alamos and Santa Fe, which could provide another commute option for our employees who live throughout the region,”  “Many of our visiting guests also travel from the Santa Fe airport to Los Alamos, and we would welcome any improvements along this route,” Pebble Labs’ director of corporate development Paul Laur said.

As the average, 1,000 employees-a-year hiring boom continues at LANL, officials at the lab are looking ahead to safety  and traffic concerns also.

“In addition, for people living in Los Alamos, a new route would help address the safety concerns that come with just one road up and down the hill. We are hiring so many people, and adding to the town’s daytime population, that it would be very slow getting people off the mesa in case of a wildfire or other emergency,” the lab spokesman said. “As we all know, traffic congestion is getting to be a significant problem in Los Alamos and White Rock. A new route would ease day to day traffic congestion and provide quicker and safer exits from town in case of an emergency.”

County Manager Harry Burgess said there have been preliminary, exploratory discussions between the county and the laboratory about an additional route.

“Without commenting on a particular location, I think we can see, with the current construction scenario and our past evacuation needs, an additional route would be beneficial, given the limited access we have today. ” Burgess said.

While lab leadership lauded Los Alamos County’s efforts to provide enough housing for LANL’s workforce, it also recognizes that with the amount of residents they are adding to the workforce yearly, the county is just not going to be able to accommodate them all.

“We applaud LA County for the steps they are taking to address the housing shortage, but those steps alone will not fully address the growing need,” the lab spokesman said. “We continue to hire at a rate of roughly 1,000 new employees a year, and many if not most of these people will live off the hill where they will need houses to live and easier, shorter commutes.”

Burgess said despite that, the county is conducting a survey to assess its current housing needs and is also has a draft request for transfer of land in the White Rock area.  

He also said the county is also in the process of evaluating the pros and cons of such an idea.

Lab leadership has made it known that even though such plans for a bridge or a road will have to come from the federal or state government, it hopes the idea gains more traction with the public’s imagination.

“We have made no secret of the idea that a community-wide, forward-leaning discussion on the future of the region is in everyone’s best interests,” the lab spokesman said.  “We have taken our interest to local and state officials, developers and contractors and others because this is a long-range set of ideas being put forth in order to prompt what we feel is a needed conversation amongst the business community, state and local governments and community leaders on the future well-being of the region.”