Hull says proposed Rio Grande bridge near Corrales likely won't happen

Gregg Hull is trying to put a lid on one of the West Side’s longest-running growth fights. At a May 11 Albuquerque Journal town hall, the former Rio Rancho mayor and Republican candidate for governor said any new Rio Grande crossing near Corrales would have to clear Corrales, Sandia Pueblo and federal agencies, a process he described as so difficult that he does not think a bridge will happen.

That matters in Sandoval County, where river crossings are never just transportation projects. The county says it stretches across 3,714 square miles, has about 160,000 residents, includes Corrales and Rio Rancho, and contains all or portions of 12 Indian Pueblos and Tribal Nations. In that setting, a bridge would not only change traffic patterns; it would also reshape development pressure, river access and the balance of authority along the Rio Grande corridor.

Hull’s comments land with extra force because he is not speaking as an outsider. Albuquerque Journal identifies him as Rio Rancho’s mayor from 2014 to 2026 and the longest-serving mayor in city history, which gives his dismissal of a new bridge the weight of someone who has spent years inside the region’s growth fights. For Corrales residents who have worried that a new crossing could funnel more traffic and more development toward the village, Hull’s message was blunt: the approval path is so tangled that the project is effectively dead.

The river corridor has already shown how easily these projects stall. In September 2024, Corrales said the Bureau of Indian Affairs Southwest Regional Office was reviewing the Corrales Siphon right-of-way after Sandia Pueblo raised concerns about whether the siphon had a valid right-of-way. Corrales also said the Bureau of Land Management was asked for an Indian Land Surveyor report because the dispute involved the river boundary and the Rio Grande riverbed. The village said the federal review was not stopping planning or design work, but Sandia Pueblo Gov. Felix Chavez said the Pueblo expected the federal process to be followed.

A separate Corrales project showed the same pattern. In March 2025, the Bureau of Reclamation moved toward public scoping meetings for the proposed Rio Grande channel rehabilitation project near river mile 199, with sessions set for March 26 and March 27 and comments due April 27, 2025. Corrales said Reclamation was acting under the Flood Control Acts of 1948 and 1950, a reminder that even modest work near the river can trigger a long federal timeline.

The broader transportation picture only explains why the bridge idea keeps returning. Albuquerque-area reporting says the metro already has at least eight Rio Grande crossings, so demands for another crossing surface whenever growth and congestion tighten the West Side. Hull’s latest message suggests that, for Corrales and Rio Rancho, the bridge debate is less a project in the pipeline than a political talking point that runs headlong into tribal, village and federal control.