Councilors Approve Traffic Study for West La Entrada

Published May 3rd, 2024 at 9:00 am

Corrales village councilors at a meeting on April 23 voted to approve a long-sought-after traffic study and granted a liquor license to a newly opened restaurant.

Councilors unanimously approved a contract for a traffic engineer to conduct a neighborhood traffic management study for West La Entrada from Corrales Rd. to Loma Larga Rd. Many Corraleños are worried about pedestrian, equestrian and bicycle safety. 

“It’s important that the study be set up to emphasize safety versus speed and ease of traffic,” Rick Thaler said during public comment. “We are humans, we are not cars.” 

Village Clerk Melanie Romero said that when she reached out to Lee Engineering over residents’ concerns about speeding on West La Entrada, the firm’s project manager and engineer Jonathan Kruse said he didn’t believe the village had a speeding problem. He said it sounded like the village has traffic-management issues and suggested a neighborhood traffic-management study. 

In a letter to Romero, Kruse outlined that the neighborhood traffic-management studies involve gathering speed and crash data. The engineering firm will then analyze the corridor to identify suitable traffic-calming measures, such as potentially lowering the speed limit. This study typically costs $6,000-$7,000 per corridor.

“Whatever the outcome of this study is, I think it’s not something that we need to slavishly adhere to, but we need to exercise our own judgment for how it fits our village and our situations,” Councilor John P. Alsobrook II said. 

In his public comment, Thaler urged councilors to follow the advice the study offers, “Because we’re not talking about moving traffic more rapidly through the village, we’re talking about pedestrian, equestrians and bicycle safety. It would be incumbent on us to follow the advice of a study.” 

In other business

Councilors approved a beer and wine liquor license for Mulas restaurant at 4908 Corrales Rd. The restaurant opened on March 15 and is owned by Edward Lujan, Roderick Long and Gabriel Holguin.

The location was previously the Corrales Bistro.

The council also approved the application for the 2024 Antique Tractor Show. The event is slated for 9 am to 4 pm on May 18 at the Corrales Rec Center, at 500 Jones Rd.

The Corrales Tractor Club event organizers are expecting around 3,000 people to attend the event with more than 200 participants.  

Get involved

The next Town Council meeting is at 6:30 p.m. May 14, at the Village of Corrales Council Chambers, 4342 Corrales Rd.