MILAN, NM – The construction on phase one of airport road has recently had its final walkthrough and the final issues will be addressed before it is finally closed out. Phases two and three have no changes, but the village will soon be looking towards applying for grants and other means of funding to help complete the project.
The Airport Rd. project has been in motion for about four years. The process for getting funding started about a year before construction began. So far in phase one, Milan has spent $3.3 million on the project. They are hoping to start phase two and three soon. Phases two and three are currently being designed and they will both be tied together. Phase two is the bridge and phase three is finishing the road all the way up to Motel. The village will be out to bid for the project within the next few months.
When asked about how much longer the road will take to be finished with all the phases, Village Clerk and Project Manager Denise Baca said it really depends on material and where it is being constructed. They said it’s hard to say when construction will be completed due to delays.
When asked why projects such as this one take so long, Baca said, “Originally when the project first started, the road was going to be pavement only. When we got onto the roadway and saw how old the lines were for the water system, we decided it was probably a good time to fix them, so we included that into the building. We had to wait for the piping and stuff, and they also did drainage a lot of that is metal and of course you can't see it but it's all underground and a lot of that takes time to ship and then finally we had some leftovers, so we did the lighting.”
Village Manager Linda Cooke said, “We would love to do some of the smaller roads, but the different types of funding only cover certain roads.” Cooke also spoke about how they determine which roads to fix, “they go out and drive the roads… then it's the search to try to find the correct funding. For funding it could take years and some funding also come out once a year so if they are not shovel-ready by the time it comes out, they must wait till the next year. There is a lot of research you must do before you can even do it.”
At the moment the Village is unable to work on the next phases, Cooke said, “The next phase we can't do that because of the access to the clinic and the other businesses in that area. So that that we have to work around.” When asked if it has been difficult working on this project as the Village Manager Cooke said, “The difficult part for me has been coming from county to municipality the rules are slightly different yeah but because I have a good team it hasn't been that difficult anything else about projects like ones that are like about to start or ones that are almost done has been working progress for the last four years or five years.”
When asked if they had anything else they wanted the community to know Baca said, “If anyone wants to come in and ask questions, they are welcome to come over here Monday through Friday and if I'm not here they can always leave a message with the girls in the front or talk to Linda.”