ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – You might not realize just how many of the goods crossing the country come through Albuquerque along I-40: “This is one of the largest arteries for the U.S. to be able to ship goods from the west coast to the east coast and one of the most important shipping routes as well,” said Marcos Gonzales, executive development officer for Bernalillo County.
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This summer, Bernalillo County got millions from the federal government to help create a relief hub along the corridor for truckers and others to stop along the route. KRQE News 13 spoke with the county official spearheading this effort.
“The majority of the goods that are flowing in and out of the country flow through Albuquerque,” Gonzales said, “It’s really an idea of, ‘let’s get some of those goods to stop here and add value to it and add jobs and add investment to our community to create jobs in our community.'”
Called the ‘I-40 TradePort Corridor Project,’ the county’s involvement was borne out of supply chain struggles faced during the pandemic. “In an effort to really relieve a lot of the traffic that’s at the port, we partnered with the port and the City of Kingman and the City of Winslow, Arizona to create kind of relief hubs along I-40,” Gonzales said.
The county is one step closer to making that a reality with an influx of $15 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation through its RAISE Grant. “It was really super exciting to receive that notice because over 200 applicants applied for that and very few got selected, and this is one of the largest RAISE Grants in the whole nation,” Gonzales said, “We’ll be leading the charge in developing infrastructure not only here in the metro area but also in Kingman and Winslow as well.”
The majority of the cash will be used in planning that hub on I-40 near the Albuquerque metro on a 6,000-acre site near the Double Eagle Airport. “The hub does not already exist, but it includes spaces for manufacturing, logistics; and then also on the renewable energy side, allowing for let’s say hydrogen trucks or trucks that are hauling stuff in and around the immediate area to be able to have charging stations,” Gonzales said.
The plan also includes improvements to Atrisco Vista Boulevard and the construction of a new connector road between I-40 and I-25, bypassing the Big-I through Rio Rancho. Gonzales said the hope is this investment will pave the way for more development on the West Mesa: “So that’s where we’ve partnered locally here with Sandoval County and the Village of Los Lunas to look at like: how do we build these infrastructure components that we know that we need, but we need the business activity first in order to justify the need for it?”
Gonzales said they’re going to be aggressive with their timeline, aiming to use these funds in the next two years: “We’re the right area for this trade and logistics pieces to be happening.”
On Tuesday night, the Bernalillo County Commission will vote to accept the federal grant and allow it to be budgeted.
