Busy highway construction between Raton and Clayton complete

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall speaks during the ribbon-cutting ceremony held
 in Clayton Wednesday to mark the completion of the 81-mile project on 
U.S. 64/87 between Raton and Clayton.

Officials this week declared the improved highway between Raton and Clayton “open for business,” referring to the completion of a $132 million, nearly seven-year project — expanding U.S. 64/87 from two to four lanes — as critical to the region’s economy and safety.

Representatives from Raton and other northeast New Mexico communities attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Clayton Wednesday morning to mark the completion of the project that actually began in early 2006 following a groundbreaking ceremony held in 2005.

The 81 miles of highway were widened in the project that was divided into seven phases of work. The final three segments that were completed last year and this year covered a 41-mile stretch from nine miles east of Raton to 15 miles east of Des Moines.

The New Mexico segment of U.S. 64/87 between Raton and Clayton is the first section of the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor to be completed as a four-lane, paved highway. The federally designated Ports-to-Plains Corridor starts at the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas, and continues through Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma before it ends in Colorado. The federal government has made the corridor a funding priority to encourage commercial traffic on it and promote greater economic trade in the Southwest. Similar trade corridors have been designated in other parts of the nation.

Commercial truck traffic on U.S. 64/87 in northern New Mexico carries billions of dollars worth of goods a year, according to state highway officials. In addition, local officials and residents in communities along the highway have long called for the widening of the highway to improve traffic safety.

The new highway has two traffic lanes in each direction — east and west — that are divided by a median and shoulders. With the expansion, the traffic count on the highway is expected to triple by 2023, according to state figures.

“Today we are celebrating a success story,” New Mexico U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, who cosponsored legislation to designate the U.S. 64/87 portion of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor, said at Wednesday’s ceremony. “This expanded highway is crucial to the region’s economy and the safety of its people. Infrastructure projects like this are important investments for our future, and the value to economic development in northeast New Mexico and the entire region will be powerful and ongoing.”

Representatives from the offices of New Mexico U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman and northern New Mexico U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján also attended the ceremony.

Read more at The Raton Range...

Busy highway construction between Raton and Clayton complete