Gail Ryba Bridge “Closure” Update

Rode out to Gail Ryba Bridge Wednesday morning to catch up on its “closure” and had a nice, brief chat with a City Department of Municipal Development (DMD) employee who saw me taking the photos below. The thoughtful employee was out there following up on our Better Burque Tactical Urbanism Team (BBTUT) 311/SeeClickFix report on the “closure” a week ago. Here’s what I found out.

While there was still a “Trail Closed” sign at the eastern end of the Bridge, the DMD employee had moved the barricade out of the way as part of their walkthrough of the situation. You can see a photo reflecting that action and the blissfully closure-free Bridge in photos at the end of this post. The DMD employee told me that PNM was doing the work behind the Jersey Barriers above and had not told the City, at least DMD, about the work. So the signs and barricades are “courtesy” PNM.

This is the first of three photos relating the *de facto* detour necessary to avoid the PNM work. First, you walk/ride about 25 feet to the end of the orange barricade and flags.

Then you turn left and walk/portage about 25 feet of gravel around the Walmart sign. It’s a tight fit, but you could walk through the sign’s arch, if you’re fond of walking/portaging through arches.

Then you walk/ride/portage north about 100 feet and get back to the “closed” trail. That’s a grand total of ~150 feet of detour. Note: If you don’t want to get off the bike, you could just ride through the, usually just about deserted in this part, Walmart parking lot.

In summary, PNM, your investor-owned (i.e., private) public utility needlessly put up signs/barricades announcing “closure” of the only true bike/ped crossing of the Rio Grande River in all of Albuquerque (and maybe the entire state now that I think about it), didn’t tell the City, didn’t announce closure or official detour details (at least that I can find online/anywhere), and all for about 20 feet of hole in the trail that wasn’t even on the Bridge itself and can easily be navigated around.

You may be thinking, “well, it’s no big deal because it’s easy to navigate around.” Yeah, but see you don’t know that until you disregard the signs. For all you know, the Bridge is truly impassible and the only way to find out is to either disregard the signs or be one of SeeClickFix nerds who reads through all the graffiti, large appliance pick up, and homelessness ~~rants~~ reports found there. Or reads Better Burque because, well, because you do.

It has been two days now and maybe the signs/barricades have been picked up. They weren’t picked up by the nice DMD employee because they weren’t DMD-contracted signs. They were/are PNMs. Your investor-owned public utility. Here’s the Contact webpage for PNM. Here’s the PNM Live Chat. Once I hit “publish” on this post I’m going to get yet another cup of coffee and do some live chatting. Those inclined are encouraged to do the same.

It is fun and perhaps illuminating to ponder what would have transpired if PNM chose to, say, close the I-40 Rio Grande Bridge in both directions without telling the City and without any detour plan, particularly if the PNM work actually wasn’t on the Bridge and actually only took about 150 feet to circumvent.

That would be fun, wouldn’t it?

And now those promised additional photos. Have a great walking/riding weekend, everybody, Gail Ryba Bridge included. If they’re still there, say “hi” to the PNM signs and barricades for me.