BLM Las Cruces District Completes Road Projects

Story by William Wight, Las Cruces District Office Public Affairs Specialist. Photos courtesy of BLM Las Cruces.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Las Cruces District recently announced the completion of two repair projects as part of the Great American Outdoors Act: a $87,400 Caballo Mountains and Cooke’s Peak roads project and a $189,000 Permian Trackways road project.

The Caballo and Cooks roads are natural surface roads providing access to radio and cell towers for multiple government agencies and private companies. These roads also provide recreational access. The roads required embankment rebuilding where erosion had occurred and repair and armoring of culverts and arroyo crossings to prevent road failure and closure which would negatively impact recreation access and multi-agency access to telecommunications equipment.

The Permian Trackways road repair project identified safety issues with the primary access road leading into the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument creating opportunities for viewing trackway fossils, hiking, horseback riding, and off-highway vehicle driving. The site is the primary access for 15 miles of non-motorized trail and 23 miles of primitive road. The project reconstructed an aggregated road surface and arroyo crossing ensuring better public access by passenger vehicles and school buses.

With many aggregated road surfaces, natural roads, and arroyo crossings, the BLM Las Cruces District is working on several projects to improve infrastructure leading into the entrances of public lands in effort to making the community a better place for everyone to enjoy the benefit from public lands.