Final Project Prioritization Plan for the NM 599 Corridor

I. Executive Summary
NM serves as a North/South by-pass for vehicles traveling through Santa Fe and a WIPP route for low level nuclear waste traveling to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project near Carlsbad. As a high-speed limited access bypass through Santa Fe NM 599 provides local Santa Fe traffic an additional North South travel corridor and alleviates traffic congestion along Cerrillos Road and St. Francis Drive.
NM 599 was designed as a controlled access facility with interchanges at all access points. Currently, it is a limited access facility with 12 allowable access points. There are five interim at-grade intersections along the corridor where right-of-way has been preserved for future intersections. Two additional access points at Jaguar Road and Caja del Rio have not been constructed. Changes in regional traffic demand and issues related to the alignments of the intersections of other roads with NM 599 have necessitated the need for reanalysis of the corridor.
This study has been coordinated with two concurrent studies sponsored by the New Mexico Department of Transportation: the Interstate 25 Corridor Study (from NM 550 to Old Pecos Trail) and the St. Francis Drive Corridor Study (from I-25 to NM 599). Each of these facilities provides different levels of transportation service and addresses different needs, but the three corridors also accommodate similar and overlapping travel demands. St. Francis Drive and NM 599 both serve north-south through travel. St. Francis provides greater accessibility to property, while NM 599 provides higher mobility. The Interstate 25 corridor provides interstate access to NM 599 and St. Francis Drive, but has the potential to interconnect with other major streets, which could influence the operation of both NM 599 and St. Francis Drive. The executive summaries of the I-25 Corridor Study and the St. Francis Drive Corridor Study can be found in Appendix A.
Purpose and Need
The crash rates on NM 599 for the period from 2003 through 2007 were below the statewide average; however…
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