N3B Urges Safety as Thousands Walk Annual Chimayo Easter Pilgrimage

Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos, the contractor known as N3B that manages the $2.1 billion federal legacy cleanup mission at Los Alamos National Laboratory, called on drivers and pilgrims alike to stay alert Thursday as tens of thousands of walkers pushed through Northern New Mexico toward El Santuario de Chimayó for the annual Good Friday pilgrimage.

The pilgrimage, a tradition more than 200 years old, drew upward of 30,000 peregrinos along a corridor that runs directly through the Española basin, where N3B's heavy-vehicle cleanup operations converge with civilian traffic heading toward the Chimayó sanctuary. The primary walking routes ran along U.S. Highway 84/285, NM 503, Juan Medina Road, and NM 76 from Española to Chimayó, creating sustained pedestrian pressure at interchanges and two-lane stretches that also carry the contractor trucks servicing cleanup sites on the Hill and in the surrounding canyons.

N3B's safety push carried particular weight at those choke points. The stretch of 84/285 between Pojoaque and the NM 503 turnoff functioned as the main artery where commuters, cleanup transport vehicles, and pilgrims walking day and night shared the narrowest margins. Drivers heading down NM-502 from Los Alamos toward Española faced the same intersection zone.

The New Mexico Department of Transportation deployed more than 150 orange barrels and approximately 250 safety signs along pilgrimage routes, swept roadways, and covered cattle guards to ease foot traffic. NMDOT crews started 12-hour shifts and continued through Saturday. Walkers were directed to use on- and off-ramps at each interchange between Santa Fe and Cuyamungue rather than crossing active travel lanes.

More than 30 public safety agencies coordinated across the region to staff the event. Motorists were advised to allow significantly longer travel times on all major routes, especially on Good Friday itself, and to expect pedestrians walking alongside highways at any hour.

For anyone still traveling Thursday night or Friday, the safest passage through the Española junction required treating every shoulder as a sidewalk: the pilgrims walking in the dark do not stop at sundown.