Surviving 285: Oil and gas boom wreaks havoc on southeast NM highways

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | March 2nd, 2019 | Ollie Reed Jr.

[CedarDave]

Figures compiled by Eddy County show there were 17 roadway fatalities in the county in both 2018 and 2017 and seven in 2016. In Lea County, according to the New Mexico State Police, there were 24 traffic fatalities in 2018, 12 in 2017 and 10 in 2016.

“There have been, I think, eight deaths on that highway (N.M. 128) between Jal and Carlsbad,” said Jim Harris, 76, director of the Lea County Museum in Lovington. “And the road south of Jal (N.M. 18) is all tore up. You cannot believe the kinds of holes that are in it now. It’s those oil trucks. I know they bring in the money, but they do the damage.”

New Mexico’s current oil boom, which, according to Robert McEntyre, spokesman for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, can be traced to the last part of 2016 and the first part of 2017, is pumping big money into the state’s coffers. And the state is looking at putting as much as $300 million to $400 million of that money into road projects statewide.

Folks who live in Eddy and Lea counties, where most of the oil and gas is produced, feel the bulk of that money should be spent to repair roads pummeled by the big rigs serving the industry and also to increase the capacity of roads jammed to a standstill by overflow traffic generated by the boom.

“There are as many as 100 trucks backed up at stoplights in Jal,” said state Sen. Gregg Fulfer, R-Jal, who is himself the owner of an oil and cattle company. “When (trucks owned by private contractors) are charging oil companies $130 an hour, that’s costing the industry millions of dollars.”

[CedarDave]

Compelling drone footage of traffic problems at the YouTube link:

Traffic in Eddy County

[CedarDave]

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[NativeSon]

Illegal aliens cause a lot of carnage on roads throughout America, perhaps something should be done about that.

[Farmer Dean]

Heavy trucks don’t damage a properly designed road.

[Parmy]

It’s all Trump’s fault. If it weren’t for his programs that create all of this prosperity these problems would be happening. Cheap gas, too much oil, too many jogs, egregious. We have to get rid of him. (sarc)

[crusty old prospector]

Those dirty fracers.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***You cannot believe the kinds of holes that are in it now. It’s those oil trucks***

i was there in the 1959-1962 gas and old boom. Are the roads any worse than they were then?

[txrefugee]

These stats are nothing compared to the carnage on roads in and around Midland and Odessa in the Texas Permian Basin oil patch. Too many trucks, inadequate roads , too few truck drivers going full blast for too many hours...a recipe for disaster.

[Dusty Road]

New Mexico has and has always had some of the worst roads of all the states I’ve traveled. Their DOT seems to see little of the revenue the state collects. They let the roads get in bad shape and then try and blame it on the traffic when in fact it’s just negligence. They’ve had 40 plus years to repair and rebuild yet the money went else where. I was putting in wells all over that area back in the late 70’s and early 80’s and the roads were bad then compared to Texas roads. South of Jal to nth of Milinsands and as far west as Artesia. The state has ignored these roads for many years.

[LegendHasIt]

Please be patient.

The leftists in Santa Fe are working on destroying the oil and gas industry in NM as fast as they can. It will be a few weeks until the tricks stop rolling.

[LegendHasIt]

Trucks, not tricks. Doh!.

On the other hand the tricks will likely never stop rolling as long as the Democrats are in charge of the state.

[Who is John Galt?]

And the state is looking at putting as much as $300 million to $400 million of that money into road projects statewide.

When I lived in southeast NM a few years back, the local impression was that most of the highway money got spent in the northern part of the state (where Albuquerque & Santa Fe are located). That tendency is even more pronounced when Democrats control the state government, because southern NM is more conservative than the northern counties (and we all know how the Dems use government to punish their political opponents)...

[shanover]

I once thought I should move from NJ to NM but I may nix that.NM is getting as libtarded as NJ. I never thought that would be possible. NM has some incredibly leftist idiocy as an American state and as a wide open gateway of the illegal infestation.

[oldasrocks]

But they say the real problem is they need more multi million dollar rest areas like the other states are putting in so no extra for road repair.

[deport]

And the state is looking at putting as much as $300 million
to $400 million of that money into road projects statewide.

************

That won’t build many miles of highway....

[Married with Children]

Twice a year I drive from El Paso to Las Cruces then to Roswell, down to a Artesia and back to El Paso. Whether I go through Carlsbad, Cloudcroft or Hondo.. those roads seem ok to me. Maybe I’m just used to the sh-tty roads here in and around Memphis.

[laplata]

Please be patient.
The leftists in Santa Fe are working on destroying the oil and gas industry in NM as fast as they can. It will be a few weeks until the tricks stop rolling.

><

They’ll not include road improvement money for those roads.

[LaRueLaDue]

“New Mexico has and has always had some of the worst roads of all the states I’ve traveled.”

Yep. Being a native New Mexican, the first time I drove through Texas I was dumbfounded at the high quality of the highways there. Concrete, smooth, wide, multiple lanes, etc. Getting back onto home state roads was an embarrassment...

[wjcsux]

The joke here in Albuquerque is that the roads are always torn up because the state needs a place to store all of the orange barrels they own.

[marktwain]

Heavy trucks don’t damage a properly designed road.

Roads are designed for a certain usage level.

Heavy trucks put more wear on any road.

A farm road is not designed for as much traffic as a freeway.

State two-lanes and not designed to take as much traffic and wear as a four-lane, in general. "Proper" road design takes usage into account.

All good engineering has a strong element of cost benefit ratio.