Emergency situation
Work on overpass adding crucial minutes to emergency response times

Gallup Police dispatcher Tabitha Payne answers calls and inputs the information into a computer at Metro Dispatch in Gallup on Tuesday afternoon. The lane closures and detours accompanying the reconstruction of Munoz overpass are adding minutes to the response times of emergency responders. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — It's been some three weeks since the New Mexico Transportation Department started closing lanes and redirecting traffic for its $19.9 million facelift of the city's Muoz overpass. But the disruption to traffic-as-usual is more than a headache for local commuters and regular visitors.

Despite the promise of smoother traffic once the overpass is fully reborn, the work it's taking to get there is adding crucial minutes to the response times of the city's public safety departments. The delays weren't unexpected; however, they're working with the Transportation Department and taking measures on their own to minimize the project's impact as much as possible.

With well over 20,000 vehicles crossing it every day, the Muozoverpass was congested even before its four lanes were cut to two last month. In addition to the growing bottlenecks at either end of the overpass, detours are sending extra traffic onto the arterial routs leading in and out of the area.

"What we're trying to do is stay out of the area completely," said Gallup Fire Chief Robert Garcia.

But with a new substation in the middle of it all, sandwiched between Highway 491 on one side and 9th Street on the other, that's a little hard to do.

Garcia said he and his staff have been meeting with the Transportation Department every few weeks to stay abreast of the latest closures and detours. The Fire Department is also making it a point now to keep the northside substation manned around the clock so it will never have to rely fully on a station farther away to respond to an emergency on that side of town. And even though crews try to find other ways across town when possible gambling with the trains on 3rd Street and Allison Road, for example, or heading to Miyamura it has on occasion called the Transportation Department to temporarily stop traffic across the overpass for its vehicles.

Even so, Garcia guessed that it's been taking the department an extra two to three minutes to reach scenes around the construction area. But the vehicles are still meeting their five minute target, he said.

The Gallup Police Department is facing the same challenges.

"Response times to calls are a little more lengthy now," said Detective Erin Pablo.

To cope, the department has an extra unit patrolling the northside and expects to have three more officers trained in first aid once they graduate this summer. They'll be able to perform some basic emergency procedures before the fire department or EMTs arrive.

Despite the delays, Garcia and Pablo said the overpass project hasn't had any practical affects on their responses yet.

Elaine Bobo, spokeswoman for Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital, where the victims of the emergency calls often end up, said the hospital hasn't noticed the impact yet either.

"We haven't had a case where time has been a factor," said Bobo, though she did not rule out the possibility.

Especially if a major incident were to occur at the wrong place on a particularly busy day, she said, or a typical Saturday perhaps, "I can see it possibly becoming and issue."

Besides the risks of slower response times, there's the danger of more accidents when normal traffic patters are disrupted and old routes become increasingly congested. But according to Pablo, the Police Department has not seen a rise in traffic accidents since work began.

Ironically, construction delays can actually lower the risk of accidents by slowing down traffic, according to City Manager Eric Honeyfield.

Even so, Garcia envisions some future trouble spots developing, at the corner of 9th Street and Maloney Avenue in particular. As a designated detour route, the intersection is seeing increased traffic. But it's a tight turn for a semitrailer to make without taking up two lanes, and Garcia sees potential problems ahead.

"It's a lot slower than usual," Garcia said of the overall situation.

But with help from the Transportation Department and the contractor on the job, he added, "we're trying to do the best we can."

The Transportation Department's plans call for a redesigned interchange system between the overpass and Interstate 40 that will eliminate at least one cross-traffic left turn. Extra holding lanes and carefully timed lights should also help give through traffic an easier pass.

If the contractor stays on schedule, Gallup should have its new overpass by September, 2007.