Valencia County Selects Alternatives 6, 7 and 12 for East Side Extension

Valencia County commissioners narrowed a 12-option feasibility study to three preferred corridor alignments — Alternatives 6, 7 and 12 — and on Feb. 18 directed the county’s engineering consultant to move those options into traffic modeling and public outreach, a decision reported March 5, 2026. The commission instructed the consultant to return with modeled results and a recommended preferred alignment suitable for environmental review and right-of-way planning.

The East Side Extension under study is planned to link the termination point of the Los Lunas Boulevard extension at N.M. 47 eastward to the Manzano Expressway on Valencia County’s east side, with the broader goal of pulling increased traffic off N.M. 47. Los Lunas Boulevard remains under construction, and county reporting states the new road that will connect Interstate 25 to N.M. 47 is slated to be finished in summer 2029, creating the traffic patterns the feasibility work anticipates.

County grant manager Jeremias Silva and the consultant presented the dozen alignments to commissioners; Silva described the feasibility review as assessing “the right of way, the number of homes impacted, mileage and so forth,” and said the county prefers “a straight shot (east) and avoid dog legs to the north and south.” Silva also told commissioners the feasibility study will run through the end of 2027 and that the project’s end result is likely “a decade out.”

The engineering consultant’s representative at the meeting was identified in county reporting as Wyatt Kartchner, vice president of Albuquerque firm Molzen Corbin. Kartchner told the commission, “We know we’re going to have a lot of traffic on 47 to go north and south, and that’s going to use local, county streets.” An AI-powered transcript and summary of the meeting used alternate spellings — listing the firm as Molson & Corbin and the speaker as “Kirchner” — while the Valencia County News-Bulletin identified Molzen Corbin and Wyatt Kartchner; county staff say they will verify consultant documentation as the next phase begins.

Commissioners and staff framed the choice of three options around technical tradeoffs: straightest, shortest alignments typically perform best for traffic yet can require larger property takings and trigger broader environmental reviews. The meeting record notes commissioners raised concerns about parcel impacts, environmental and right-of-way costs, and public acceptability; staff analysis showed Alternative 7 among the lowest in parcel impacts, and some alignments were flagged as more compatible with NMDOT spacing and signalization needs.

The county has been working on the East Side Extension feasibility study since October 2023. With the commission’s Feb. 18 directive, Molzen Corbin and county staff must conduct detailed traffic modeling on Alternatives 6, 7 and 12, begin the next phase of public involvement, and report back with modeled traffic results and a recommended preferred alignment that can advance to formal environmental review and right-of-way planning. The commission did not set public meeting dates at that session; county staff and the consultant will develop outreach schedules as part of the next phase.

Modeled results and the consultant recommendation will determine which corridor proceeds to environmental review and right-of-way acquisition steps as the feasibility study continues through the end of 2027, shaping whether the multi-jurisdictional connection between I-25, N.M. 47 and the Manzano Expressway moves forward within the timeframe Silva described as potentially “a decade out.”