I-25 Comanche, Montgomery interchange rebuild takes visible shape in Albuquerque

Crews rebuilding the I-25 corridor at Montgomery Boulevard and Comanche Road have turned one of northeast Albuquerque’s most frustrating choke points into a full-scale construction zone, and the new layout is starting to take shape above the freeway.

The redesign is built around advanced U-turn lanes that will run beneath the new bridges at both interchanges, letting drivers turn back without stopping at a traffic light. New braided ramps are also part of the plan, separating traffic streams more cleanly where vehicles enter and exit the freeway. NMDOT spokeswoman Kimberly Gallegos said the changes are meant to smooth traffic flow in a corridor that sees heavy merging and exiting all day.

That matters on a stretch where Montgomery and Comanche sit less than a mile apart and have long frustrated commuters with backups and crash risks. NMDOT says about 102,000 trips move through the corridor each day, making the work a major factor in how people get to homes, jobs and businesses across northeast Albuquerque and the rest of Bernalillo County.

The project began in August 2024 and is expected to continue through spring 2027. NMDOT has called it the largest construction project in recent New Mexico history, with project cost estimates ranging from about $268 million to $278 million. It is being built as a design-build job, meaning design and construction are happening at the same time.

The work goes beyond the two interchanges. Plans include rebuilding the Comanche Road Bridge and the Montgomery Boulevard Bridge, widening frontage roads, adding barrier-separated shared-use paths for pedestrians and cyclists, and reconstructing a southbound frontage-road bridge over the North Diversion Channel. NMDOT says the effort is intended to improve safety, cut congestion, replace aging bridges and pavement, and prepare the north I-25 corridor for growth.

Drivers have already seen some of the changes. NMDOT completed the outside lanes of I-25 between Candelaria Road and south of Montgomery in 2025, then shifted traffic onto the new pavement on June 30, 2025 so crews could work on the median and inside lanes. In January 2026, the agency said workers were setting 12 bridge beams at Montgomery, each weighing up to 83 tons and spanning 168 feet.

The project has also brought the kind of construction impacts nearby neighborhoods and businesses know well: noise, dust, vibration, lighting and traffic delays, including overnight work. The corridor rebuild builds on a 2011 North I-25 study that identified existing and future deficiencies, and it now stretches from south of Interstate 40 to the Tramway Road interchange.