District 5 engineers and NMDOT staff briefed the Transportation Infrastructure Revenue Subcommittee on project status, maintenance activity and funding needs across San Juan, Rio Arriba, Taos, Santa Fe, Torrance and Los Alamos counties.

Rhonda Lopez, district 5 engineer, said the district maintains about 5,375 lane miles, operates 21 maintenance patrols, five construction offices and seven special crews, and currently lists 324 authorized positions with an 18.8 percent vacancy rate. Lopez told the committee that fiscal-year 2026 budget planning reflects reduced available construction funds compared with the previous year.

Why it matters: the district reported several active construction and contract maintenance projects, a pipeline of planning-year projects that lack construction funding, and one large federal grant that depends on a state match. Lopez said the US 64 corridor grant package included roughly $59.6 million in federal grant funding and $25 million additional federal awards; the district’s planned state-match project (project code 5101176) is priced at about $34 million. “If we do not get the state funding in order to build that project … we will need to return that grant funding that we received from FHWA and USDOT,” Lopez said.

Other details from the presentation:
- FY25–26 funding and programs: District 5 expects to use FY25 one-time appropriations for maintenance and striping and cited the Transportation Project Fund (TPF) increase; Lopez said TPF awards available to applicants rose to approximately $16 million for the district cycle versus about $9.7 million the prior year.
- Local Government Road Fund (LGRF): district-level LGRF allocations were essentially flat year-over-year, reported at about $5.46 million for FY26 (down slightly from approximately $5.49 million in FY25 in the presentation packet).
- Contract maintenance: FY24 completed contract-maintenance work totaled about $12 million; FY25-to-date work was roughly $8.7 million, with several projects completed and others under construction.
- Equipment needs: the department received $12 million statewide in equipment funding; Lopez said District 5’s realistic equipment needs are larger — she estimated roughly $25–30 million in unmet district equipment needs.

Questions and context:
- Committee members asked for existing-conditions assessments on major freight corridors I‑40 and I‑10; NMDOT said it has completed the I‑40 corridor study and intends to present results to affected elected officials and the committee.
- Committee members asked about contract decisions that favor the safest design alternative (for example, roundabouts over signalized intersections) and whether federal program rules influenced those choices; NMDOT engineering staff said safety-driven alternatives are pursued when funds are available and that federal grant program requirements frequently shape project design and funding.

Ending: District 5 asked the subcommittee to note projects that require continuing state or federal match and to consider those items for prioritization as interim work proceeds. Members asked for follow-up presentations on corridor condition assessments and for documentation on project lists and funding gaps.