The city of Albuquerque partially reopened the newly renovated Lead and Coal avenues last week.
Mark Motsko, spokesman for the city’s Department of Municipal Development, said the $26 million Lead and Coal Improvements Project began in October 2010 is 85 percent complete, and should be finished by the end of Spring 2012. He said both streets returned to the original one-way direction, with limited lane closures.
“We’ve reduced the lanes from three lanes of traffic to two lanes of traffic, a bicycle lane, and wider sidewalk with pedestrian amenities like park benches, trash bins and new bus stops,” he said. “We’re finishing up the curb and gutter, installing cross walks, landscaping, the final level of paving, and then striping.”
Motsko said the department tried to maintain access to the local business throughout the construction. He said the department added a business directory to the project’s website at www.leadandcoal.com and provided signage during the construction to notify drivers how to get to the businesses.
But Nan Morningstar, owner of Free Radicals on the corner of Yale Blvd and Lead Avenue, said her business still struggled to stay afloat throughout the construction while other businesses such as Stepp’n-2-Style and Saffron Café shut down.
“Sales have been down 30 percent for the past year,” she said. “It’s been terrible, a lot of places shut down, even the farmer’s market.”
Morningstar said she has yet to notice any improvements in business since the roads reopened, but she said she is happy that the project is almost complete.
UNM student Jaymie Wren, who lives on Columbia Drive, between Lead and Coal, said she is relieved the construction is done because the construction doubled the time it takes for her to get to school. “Thank goodness it’s almost done,” she said. “I used to have to drive over a huge mound of dirt and drive the wrong way on the street if I wanted to get to school on time, or I could go all the way around it to the next street or ride my bike, but in the winter it was really cold and I know it’s not that far, but it sucked.”
