Rush-hour relief
Businesses happy to see Muñoz overpass open

Traffic backs up at the Allison crossing because of two BNSF trains passing through Gallup June 20. The Munoz overpass is nearing completion which should help alleviate some of the traffic problems across town. The overpass is currently scheduled to open Friday. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Like most business owners around town and just about everyone else who's had to cross the railroad tracks during rush hour over the past year-and-a-half Gary Leloff can hardly wait for the Muñoz overpass to reopen Friday.

"I need it bad," said Leloff, who's seen more than a quarter of the business at his Big O Tire store dry up over the past year.

For anyone who's forgotten why Gallup had to go through it all, said Stan Henderson, the city's public works director, "that bridge was about ready to fall apart."

Pot holes and snaking cracks marked the deck. Rusting metal beams needed refurbishing. The abutments on either side of the bridge were off grade.

All told, Henderson said, "it made for a rough ride."

And that's not to mention the traffic, which had long outgrown what the overpass was designed to ever handle.

Henderson stopped short of calling it dangerous, but not by much.

"The state's crews were out there, what, three or four times a year? That's not a good sign," he said.

Strapped for cash and never short of projects, the New Mexico Department of Transportation's Region 6, which oversees Gallup out of Grants, had planned on getting around to Muñoz either this year or next. It had already pushed the $20 million project back once. But convinced the overpass could not wait, city officials implored the state to move it up. After a few trips to Santa Fe, they succeeded.

City officials warned Gallup that the project would be hard on business and traffic. But that didn't make the experience any easier on Leloff. He took out a loan, laid off three employees, discounted merchandise, and upped his advertising budget 30 percent. Still, business is down 28 percent compared to one year ago.

"That's a big hit," he said.

Others fared better.

"I've been in business 40 years, and we've always found a way to survive," said Ellis Tanner, owner of the eponymously named trading company.

He didn't have to try very hard this time, though. Tanner said he's suffered no loss of business to the overpass project.

Business was somewhere in-between for Charlie Chavez.

"January and February I was only down about 10 percent," the Virgie's Restaurant owner said. "I thought it would be worse."

Back in November, he and a few other business owners urged the City Council not to close the two lanes across the overpass that were still open, worried that a complete cutoff between the north and south sides of the city would hurt business even more. The group claimed to have collected more than 750 signatures to back up its request in just five days. But the decision was not the council's to make, and the state having gotten public support for a full closure, in exchange for an expedited timetable forged ahead.

Chavez has reconciled with the closure since. He sounds almost indifferent about the matter now. After all, he's had more important business matters on his mind lately. An April 23 fire in the adult bookstore next door forced Virgie's to close. Chavez hopes to reopen Monday, and when he does, he said, "I hope that everybody that goes over (Muñoz) comes over here."

But the closure hasn't just been hard on Gallup businesses. Cliff Mariano runs a small business in Crownpoint and drives into Gallup almost daily for supplies.

"It's been kind of tough, especially when you're in a hurry," he said. "I'll be happy when it opens, though. I can't wait to see it."

The Transportation Department first closed down the two southbound lanes in February 2006 to let the contractor, A.S. Horner, get started on the reconstruction of the Interstate 40 interchange. It closed down all four lanes in January so that the contractor could start rebuilding the bridge over the railroad tracks.

The Department designed the project to ease congestion by eliminating a left-hand turn onto eastbound I-40, adding northbound turning lanes onto Maloney Avenue, and synchronizing the traffic lights.

Despite the hardships of getting there, most business owners agreed with City Hall that the aging overpass needed to be fixed.

"Any time you do something like this it's progress, and you give a little to get a little," Tanner said. "In the end, everybody benefits."