Rob Swan
As soon as the ski area closed the sidewalks started coming out. Red River is in the process of replacing our aging and deteriorating sidewalks. The current sidewalks were put in over two decades ago and at that time, Red River had no sidewalks and hundreds of unsightly overhead power lines. During the initial sidewalk construction, the overhead lines were placed under the sidewalks giving the town a much needed facelift. Fast forward twenty some years and our sidewalks are now due for an upgrade.
The current project is headed up by GM Emulsions out of Santa Fe. According to Mayor Calhoun, the project is taking a novel approach in regard to the acquisition of the thousands of yards of concrete that will be needed. The traditional method of providing concrete is to purchase the premixed concrete from a batch plant in Taos and have it trucked to Red River. The cost of the traditional method is expensive due to the transportation costs of getting it to Red River 10 cubic yards at a time. GM Emulsions has invested in a portable batch plant so all the concrete can now be mixed right here in Red River, saving a tremendous amount of money on the project. The portable batch plant has been set up on the west side of the Conference Center and a portable lab on the east side to maintain quality control of the concrete.
The project will be done in increments and is scheduled to last throughout summer 2024 and summer 2025. The project started across from Town Hall on the south side of Main St and will continue west until reaching the end of town when construction will move to the north side of Main St and continue back to Town Hall. The west side of town is scheduled to be completed this summer and the east side of town is scheduled for summer 2025.
In order to minimize the disruption to businesses and guests, only one block will be done at a time. Once the sidewalk from one block is removed, it will be replaced before moving on to the next block. By using this approach, no more than one block will be disrupted at any given time.
