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Thursday, November 29, 2007

Bernalillo County to Request Frost Road Trail Funds

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
    An effort to make Frost Road safer for biking, walking and jogging is under way.
    At the upcoming legislative session, Bernalillo County will request funding for a trail for road bikers, mountain bikers, horse riders and pedestrians that would start at N.M. 14 and go east to Mountain Valley Road and possibly all the way to the Bernalillo-Santa Fe County line.
    The proposed trail would connect to the Turquoise Trail, a National Scenic Byway that includes N.M. 14 and the Sandia Crest Highway.
    "Right now there is no shoulder on (Frost) road," said Mike Madden, the East Mountain Coalition of Neighborhood and Landowner Associations' unofficial "Trail Guy" and a director of the Turquoise Trail Preservation Trust, in a phone interview last month.
    State Rep. Kathy McCoy has also weighed in on the matter, calling the road "incredibly dangerous for anybody that's riding (a bike) or walking."
    "I've committed to some initial funding," McCoy said in a phone interview in early November.
    She said her portion will be anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000.
    That's a start, but the project will cost about $5 million or more, according to a letter written by Madden seeking community support for the project.
    The plan for the trail may include three strips of new pavement, according to Madden: paved shoulders on both sides of the road for road bikes and a four-foot-wide "baby jogger," a paved walking trail.
    The walking trail would be separated from the road to keep walkers and joggers away from traffic. According to Madden, it may be placed on both sides of the road in two four-foot-wide strips or on one side of the road in a six- to eight-foot strip.
    Rather than try to find enough money for the entire project, the current plan is to fund the work one mile at a time.
    "(Bernalillo County) is asking for $1.5 million for phase one, for up to one mile of trail and road improvement," said Clay Campbell, planning manager for Bernalillo County Parks and Recreation Department.
    Campbell was the project manager for the East Mountain Trails and Bikeways Master Plan, which was adopted by the county in 2005. It proposes future trail and bike path developments that could link neighborhoods, commercial areas, county and city open spaces in the East Mountains area.
    The trail project along Frost Road is a priority for funding, according to County Commissioner Michael Brasher.
    Before the creation of the master plan, the community was surveyed and trail development on Frost Road was identified as a priority, Brasher said.
    An additional $250,000 of county money is earmarked for the project.