Rio Grande Boulevard Complete Street Concept Plan

Public Meeting

June 20, 2017 - 5:30 PM at Hotel Albuquerque - Presentation of final recommendations of the Rio Grande Boulevard Complete Street Concept Plan

Update March 13, 2017: Download the Final Report for this project.

Overview

Residents and businesses along Rio Grande Boulevard have voiced concerns regarding vehicle speed along the corridor and have expressed the desire to calm traffic and promote a more inviting pedestrian environment. Councilor Benton is sponsoring a Complete Street Concept Plan to address these issues.

The City Council office has retained nationally-recognized Planning and Design consulting firm Kimley-Horn to produce this plan. Kimley-Horn already has considerable experience working in the area, including design of the road diet restriping project between 8th and San Pasquale and recent collaboration with the Department of Municipal Development and ABQ Ride to reconfigure the intersections of Central with Lomas and Rio Grande.

The purpose of the Rio Grande Boulevard Complete Street Concept Plan is to develop implementable transportation improvements along Rio Grande Boulevard. The study area begins at I-40 and follows Rio Grande Boulevard south to Alhambra Ave. This high-volume segment of Rio Grande Boulevard creates a barrier to east-west pedestrian and bicycle connectivity with limited crossing locations and high pedestrian crossing demand. South of Central Avenue, Rio Grande Boulevard is a lower-volume street with predominantly residential uses, although some commuters are known to use this as a cut-through route between areas to the south and I-40 to the north.

With planned access modifications to the Central Avenue/Lomas Boulevard/San Pasquale intersection, it is anticipated that additional traffic will divert to this segment of Rio Grande Boulevard. In addition to evaluating potential pedestrian and bicycle improvements along this segment, the Plan will assess traffic operations with the potential additional traffic diverted from the Central Avenue/Lomas Boulevard intersection.

A map of the study area can be found to the right. The final product will contain concepts and recommendations that will enhance the overall safety of the corridor with improvements to bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Vehicular capacity along Rio Grande Boulevard will remain the same to accommodate commuting and tourism traffic.