N.M. DOT District 4 reports wildfire recovery spending, ongoing interstate work and staffing levels

Adam Romero, district engineer for New Mexico Department of Transportation District 4, told the Transportation, Public Works & Capital Improvements committee that the district carried out extensive wildfire-related repairs, opened multiple construction projects and is managing staffing vacancies while moving projects from design to construction.

Romero, who said he has worked for NMDOT District 4 for 22 years and has been the district engineer for 18 months, presented the district’s FY25 budget and project lists. District 4 covers seven counties in northeast New Mexico and includes significant interstate and U.S. highway mileage; Romero said the district has about 313 full‑time employees and roughly 26 vacancies, an 8% vacancy rate. "We were actually lower than that, but at the end of the year we had some retirees," Romero said.

Fire recovery and funding: committee members and NMDOT leadership discussed wildfire recovery from the Hermit’s Peak–Calf Canyon complex. Rick Padilla, NMDOT secretary, said the department has led a large fire-recovery effort, executing work under an executive order and working with the Department of Homeland Security and a third‑party monitor to secure FEMA reimbursement. Padilla reported that the department had spent on the order of tens of millions on fire recovery at Hermit’s Peak–Calf Canyon and that those expenditures are being managed to preserve FEMA-eligible reimbursement. "We're working with Department of Homeland Security and a third party monitor to ensure that all of the expenditures we make in that effort are reimbursable by FEMA," Padilla said.

Romero described $7,000,000 in state-funded maintenance actions tied to wildfire damage that had already been deployed to replace guardrail, repair fencing and perform roadway hot-in-place recycling and milling. He also described ongoing work to clear storm and flood damage after the fires; the department said repeated rain events created additional workload after the initial burns.

Projects and program awards: Romero outlined completed construction totaling about $141,000,000 over recent years, with ongoing construction and planned let dates for projects on I‑25, I‑40 and several U.S. highways. District 4 has several upcoming construction projects (including a $16,000,000 I‑40 project and an $11,000,000 project on NM 104), about $30,000,000 in projects in the near-term STIP window and multiple maintenance contracts totaling roughly $28,000,000 recently completed.

Local government funding: Romero reviewed Local Government Road Fund distributions, Transportation Project Fund awards and school-bus-route cooperative agreements. He said the district spreads those funds across municipalities and counties; examples included county arterial and municipal arterial awards, a municipal cooperative agreement with New Mexico Highlands University and school district cooperative funding.

Reimbursements and process: Romero and Secretary Padilla said NMDOT initially fronts the cost to restore state assets and then seeks FEMA reimbursement; separate executive-order funding for large-scale recovery is managed to be reimbursable and will be returned to the originating fund when FEMA reimbursement is received. Padilla said the department has been spending significant sums in the Hermit’s Peak–Calf Canyon recovery and is tracking those costs with oversight.

Committee members asked for maps and for similar district-level summaries across districts. Representative Lundstrom praised District 4’s map presentation and requested comparable maps for each district to show where general-fund or special appropriations have been spent; Secretary Padilla agreed to provide them. Romero closed by standing for questions from committee members.

No formal votes were taken during the presentation.