Rio Communities to get new traffic lights

July 02, 2009

Rio Communities will get traffic lights at the intersection of Highway 47 and Highway 304, after the Valencia County Commission agreed to accept the maintenance and liability requirements that come with it.

“It’s been pretty congested,” said Commissioner Ron Gentry, who represents the area, speaking in favor of approval. “We’ve had a fatality, three or four months ago. We’ve had quite a few wrecks there.”

The county has $300,000 for traffic lights at that intersection from a 2006 legislative appropriation, but three county commissioners had hesitated to spend the money on them because of maintenance and liability concerns.

County Manager Eric Zamora and several commissioners previously said it would be the first set of stop lights requiring county maintenance. Last night, however, Nancy Perea, a New Mexico Department of Transportation official, said the county and state already have a joint responsibility for the traffic lights at the intersection of Highway 47, River Road and the Manzano Expressway.

“That’s news to me,” Zamora said.

Zamora, who’s been with the county for approximately two years, suggested the county has never done anything to maintain those existing signals but said the state has.

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