Funding has been secured for a long-planned large project in Socorro County that will see the building of two bridges crossing the Nogal Canyon roughly halfway between Albuquerque and Las Cruces.
The existing bridges, part of the Interstate 25 system, were built more than half a century ago and have long been regarded as structurally deficient by New Mexico Department of Transportation officials.
Both structures, one each for southbound and northbound traffic, are designed along the lines of a traditional Warren Truss bridge, which has an emphasis on panel lengths and diagonals of equal strength supporting each other. The Warren referenced is James Warren, an engineer who patented the design in the 1830s.
At the time of the bridges’ construction, observed the Hobbs Daily Sun News, “earth from cuts made in the canyon were used as fill, and the fill is being used as a base on which the structure is being built.”
Constructed in 1968, the Nogal Canyon bridges comprise a total span length of 376 feet and has long been a thing of wonder to travelers. “Whether you have the soul of an engineer or an artist, you’ll appreciate the craftsmanship on display in the steel-deck truss bridges supporting the interstate as it spans the canyon,” notes the 2017 book Detour New Mexico.
But years of heavy traffic have done their damage to the structures. Last fall the El Defensor Chieftain noted that “each bridge requires major rehabilitation to maintain minimally acceptable levels of service required to accommodate interstate traffic.”
Put another way in a Department of Transportation release: the bridges are “at the end of their useful life.”
Now the Federal Highway Administration has announced the awarding of a $72 million grant targeting the replacement of both bridges. In a press release celebrating the funding, Democrat New Mexico Senator Ben Ray Lujan said the federal investment will “enhance the safety and connectivity of our communities, strengthening local infrastructure for years to come.”
Lujan added: “This funding underscores the importance of infrastructure improvements to promote public safety and economic development.”
The funding is more specifically coming out of the federal Transportation Department’s Bridge Investment Program, which has just awarded more than $5 billion in support for thirteen different bridge projects nationally.
By Garry Boulard
Image Credit: Courtesy of Flickr