Isleta Boulevard Context Sensitive Design Project

Contact:  Geri Knoebel

A three year grant from the Surdna Foundation has made it possible for the ATR Institute (ATRI) to work with a coalition of small businesses and neighborhood associations to provide for alternative transportation systems and develop smart growth policies.  ATRI has been involved in public participation projects from local, statewide, and national perspectives. A local project, the South Valley Transportation Improvement and Mobility Project, assisted the historic and culturally-rich South Valley with innovative tools and technical assistance in community-based transportation projects in both transit and road improvement projects.

In the 1990’s, ATRI assisted area residents in developing a community transportation plan that Bernalillo County eventually accepted, and resulted in funding for a public transit route for the first time since 1975. Transit has become an important element of the South Valley community’s viability and livability through improved accessibility and linkage within the community, as well as within the metropolitan area. Notably, these transit routes are among the most heavily used in the area.

Another important transportation project has been the Isleta Boulevard Road Improvement Project. The road is part of the historic El Camino Real that meandered like the Rio Grande River through the County’s agricultural South Valley. The community is semi-rural in nature and is located beyond the city limits of Albuquerque but is still within the same County. Isleta Boulevard is particularly important to the Hispanic community who have lived along and traveled this route for many generations. Isleta Boulevard was also part of the original alignment of Route 66.

While initially proposed in the late 1980’s, the Bernalillo County (New Mexico) had been developing plans for road improvements to Isleta Boulevard with minimal public involvement. In its 1999 Environmental Assessment Plan (EAP), the County proposed expanding this two-lane road into a five-lane thoroughfare. At the EAP public hearing, citizens strongly opposed this proposal, because the new road would dissect the community without providing economic or other benefits. The community’s opposition to the County’s proposal led to the formation of the Citizens’ Advisory Committee (CAC).

The reassessment process of the EAP thoroughly reviewed the social, economic, cultural, and environmental effects of Isleta Road Project options and in the process developed innovative tools for communicating information. The basis for the CAC’s activities was the Federal Highway Administration’s context sensitive design process. Through the CAC process, the community’s voice was heard which minimized the Project’s adverse community’s impacts while addressing the existing safety deficiencies and traffic capacity needs of the area. A compromise proposal was put forth in a revised EAP in October 2000 which was accepted by the community, the County and FHWA. Included in the transportation project for Isleta Boulevard are improvements to enhance safety by installing sidewalks, bike lanes, bus bays, lighting and adding an additional lane for making left turns. Phase One will be completed in August 2003 and the design for Phase Two is well underway.

These transit and road improvement projects have empowered residents through community-based efforts to address transportation deficiencies using stakeholder-based, public involvement processes. Central to the success of the reassessment activities for the Isleta Boulevard improvements was the use of the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA’s) context sensitive design process. Contrary to traditional processes of engineering highway design, context sensitive design is an interdisciplinary process that takes into consideration a community character, sense of scale and place, as well as other community assets that are intangible, such as history, culture, and heritage. The context sensitive design process was helpful in reaching a compromise road design that accommodated diverse community interests and technical concerns.

Another important element in the development of this compromise between differing perspectives and options was the provision of information in ways that were easily understood and accessible. In the reassessment process, project options were facilitated by the use of innovative tools for communicating information. These tools included: visualization techniques to clarify concepts; the conversion of complex engineering information to materials that would be understandable for technical as well as lay persons; community impacts matrices; and a visual preference survey of alternative designs.

As a result of these processes, the community’s voice was heard, existing safety deficiencies and traffic capacity needs of the area were addressed, and the project’s adverse community impacts were minimized. ATRI, Bernalillo County, CAC, FHWA and others demonstrated the power of working together to develop a transportation project that reflects the needs of the community and recognizes its sense of place by respecting and incorporating the community’s historical and present view of itself.