By Mary Alice Murphy

Brian Torres, New Mexico Department of Transportation project manager for the New Mexico 90/Hudson Street Bridge on the south side of Silver City, said: "What's holding us up is that the grade is not finished. "We are still placing embankment. The rain and the snows last week and a half slowed us down. We will work Saturday and maybe Sunday.

No representative of the bridge contractor Interstate Highway Construction was on hand to talk about the construction portion of the process, but Torres answered questions.

"We are on schedule to place asphalt next week," he said.

He said the approaches had been too wet. "The ground has to meet compaction guidelines."

"We anticipate opening the bridge to traffic on Jan. 30," Torres said. "We'll still be doing little things, but traffic will be flowing over it. After Jan. 30, we anticipate about a month or a little more to finish up. Our time runs into the middle of March, based on our 325-day count. We added 26 days because of pier availability issues.

"Valley Fence is in the process of tying up the pedestrian fence," he continued. "Bixby Electric has two more drill shafts for lighting and then you'll be seeing lights on the bridge. They are grooving the deck for skid resistance. I think about one side is done.

"We still have some repairs to the ByPass Road," he said. "We'll do the repairs and place a cap over the top. That's the last thing to do. Right now we're concentrating on the grade. We have about 250 feet of transit on each end."

Trent Botkin, NMDOT statewide natural resources coordinator, said the scope of work for the bridge was for the department to restore the trail under the bridge as it was and to replace the split-rail fence, put the kiosk back in and stabilize the stream banks.

"The town has asked for the trailhead and kiosk to be put in other places and the fence to be a pipe fence," Botkin said. "Changing the fence material is not in the scope. We have asked the town to come up with a plan that we can do at the same cost. The town asked us to use Stream Dynamics, which has a contract with the town for a project along San Vicente Creek. We are right in the middle of their project. By the end of the week, we should have the proposal."

Claire Catlett of Stream Dynamics said the company has an existing contract with the New Mexico Environment Department for the San Vicente watershed urban restoration.

"The existing plan is to reduce the meander and stabilize the banks to create habitat," Catlett said. "The project is planned for this spring and partnerships are already being coordinated. We are looking at this nexus of opportunity to build a good trailhead."

Botkin said the original idea of restoring the trailhead was to make it a community event for volunteers to come out and work on the project, coordinated by the Office of Sustainability. "I have worked with Van Clothier, the owner of Stream Dynamics, which is doing stream restoration and water harvesting."

"Our company does projects from planning and design to construction," Catlett said.

"This is an opportunity for us, too, because the contractor builds roads, not stream beds," Botkin said. "So we hope Van can work with the contractor. Stream reconstruction is a different project from bridge building. The reconstruction wasn't in the original plan, so we have a separate contract, so that even if it's delayed it will still happen. It is managed by the NMDOT environmental section. We hope to get it done this spring, but it will get done."

"We'll get it back to the way it was before, if not better," Torres said.

"We have committed to placing parking blocks," Botkin said. "Once the construction is done, the trail will be open, although there may be temporary closures to move equipment. We will expand the vehicle exclusion area and use all the extra rock, which we will be happy to leave. It can be used for stabilization."

He addressed a safety issue with Griffin's Propane. The department hopes Griffin will continue to use the ramp that was put in for the company's use. "We hope he'll use the gate just for emergencies."

"The town has talked about leasing the area of the trailhead, which is in our right-of-way," Botkin said. "Then they could put in lighting from the bridge."

Catlett noted that Deb Preusch, Aldo Leopold Charter School internship director, had told her that the school's Youth Conservation Corps members would be working on the San Vicente Creek trail this spring.

To a question about the lifetime of the bridge, Torres said it was a 100-year design, so should last well for at least 100 years.

This reporter asked when the Pinos Altos Road project from highway 180 to 32nd Street was slated to begin. Torres said the project is in the 2017 schedule. "Engineers Inc. is taking care of plans. We are in the process of acquiring rights-of-way along the road. It will have bike lanes, sidewalks and drainage issues will be addressed."

Botkin said when the old Highway 90 Bridge was demolished it took away bat habitat. "It was not a maternal colony, which hibernates over the winter. It was a roosting colony, so they found other homes. We will be installing lightweight air-infused concrete panels under the bridge. The bats will come back."

He said a National Environmental Policy Act process had been done. "That's all my group does," Botkin said. "We hired a company to do a biological survey, because the endangered Chirichahua frog might have been a concern, but it wasn't found. However, the bat colony was identified. Likely they are not endangered species, but our stewardship agreement does not allow us to tear down bridges or fill in cracks to keep bats out. What we are doing is a mitigation to replace their roosting places with the panels. We can add as many as we want."

Torres said at least one more and perhaps two more public meetings would take place. The next one is set for Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 6 p.m. at the Grant County Administration Center.