By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper.
Drivers on NM 528 will see new lane markers, not new headlines, this week as crews are installing delineators, signage and striping at the Pasilla Road intersection through July 15 — the long-promised interim fix at one of Rio Rancho’s most dangerous stretches of road.
Work runs 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, with detours in place and everything subject to New Mexico’s actual weather forecast rather than NMDOT’s wish list.
NMDOT told The Paper. this spring the upgrades — which create right-in/right-out access for northbound and southbound traffic — were underway, with a vendor anticipated to complete the work this summer. The intersection has drawn scrutiny after a signal warrant analysis recorded 25 crashes there between 2019 and 2023, nine of them types a traffic signal could correct.
The delineator and striping work is separate from the corridor’s three automated speed cameras, which went live in June, and won’t affect that enforcement. It’s also not the fix drivers have been asking for loudest: a full traffic signal at Pasilla remains years off, added to the state’s Transportation Improvement Program for planning years 2029–2030.
The intersection sits inside a roughly 3.5-mile segment of NM 528 that NMDOT recorded 24 crashes on in 2025 alone, and a safety study presented earlier this year cited seven fatalities along the corridor in the previous 18 months. That toll is what’s driving NMDOT to layer interim fixes — cameras, now delineators — onto a stretch of highway where the permanent solution is still the better part of a decade away.
NM 528 / Pasilla Road work:
- Dates: Through July 15
- Hours: 9 a.m.–3 p.m. daily
- Status: Weather permitting; detours provided
- Long-term signal: NMDOT Transportation Improvement Program, 2029–2030