Posted at: 07/02/2009 7:29 PM
By: Stuart Dyson, Eyewitness News 4; Charlie Pabst, KOB.com

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Local officials eye federal money for construction

Proposed project at I-25/Paseo del Norte

A bunch of local government leaders are eyeballing a $1.5 billion moneypile that Congress has set aside for transportation projects—and want to grab a chunk of it for I-25 and Paseo del Norte.

They need $350 million for the massive job of rebuilding the obsolete and hopelessly inadequate Paseo del Norte interchange, and now the Mid-Region Council of Governments has the green light to go and try to get it.

Mid-Region Council Member Lawrence Real said Thursday, "We have absolutely no opportunity using our current revenue sources that we get and the dollars we have in New Mexico to get this interchange done anytime soon - without a major investment by the federal government."

President Obama and Congress have set aside a special fund of $1.5 billion for transportation projects nationwide, with states competing for shares of the money. The Paseo interchange would gobble up about 1/5 of it.

"Obviously there are lots of transportation needs across the state that need to be considered - this one is by far the most significant in terms of cost and impacts to the region - and because it creates a tremendous amount of jobs just in the construction phase of it," Rael said.

New Mexico is already getting almost $300 million worth of federal stimulus money for transportation projects around the state, but that interchange is not on the list.

State transportation officials said it was not “shovel-ready” enough to be on the first list, but local government leaders say it could be ready for the competitive bidding process in September.