Albuquerque could soon receive long-awaited walking and biking paths along the Rio Grande after city officials approved preliminary plans during a recent meeting.
The City Council approved plans to install trails along the city’s portion of the famed El Camino Real, a stretch of road that once connected Northern New Mexico and old Mexico. Early designs, according to a KRQE report, call for bicycle paths along Rio Grande Boulevard, a pedestrian bridge from the Rail Yards to South Broadway, and other trails explained by interpretive signs.
“It’s an exciting project,” City Council member Isaac Benton told the committee last week. It “celebrates our culture.”
The estimated cost for the project is more than $27 million, with the city of Albuquerque chipping in for about $12 million and Bernalillo County paying “a similar amount,” according to the KRQE report. Much of the money will be used to construct the trail segments to give them a historic feel as well as blend in with the environment. Around $100,000 will go to educational signs and the like, according to KRQE report.
The National Park Service, the New Mexico Department of Transportation and other entities will also help with funding, though there is no date for when construction will actually begin.
