SANTA FE – The New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) and New Mexico Tourism Department (NMTD) have partnered to make critical street repairs, maintain medians, and clean up litter in high traffic areas in the City of Santa Fe. As the city continues to work toward completing annual financial audits required to access unspent funds earmarked for improvements to roads, medians, and parks, it agreed to allow the state to step in to assist. This effort is ongoing and aims to make Santa Fe a better place to live, work, and visit.

Through this partnership, NMDOT has contributed more than $500,000 in manpower and materials to address cracking asphalt, potholes, and other road deterioration across Santa Fe. Initial road repair locations were selected by the City of Santa Fe. The NMDOT has since identified 20 additional priority locations in need of critical repair. The state will continue work in the coming weeks as weather allows. 

“There is no place in the world like New Mexico, and we should take pride in how it looks and feels for residents and visitors,” said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. “This is by no means an isolated effort – we can all do better to keep our roads in good shape, medians maintained and litter cleaned up. New Mexicans will be seeing a significant, statewide effort launched in the coming weeks to make sure that pride is evident in every New Mexico community and along every highway. Let’s get to work.”   

Areas addressed so far include South St. Francis Drive, Cerrillos Road, St. Michaels Drive and the Plaza. NMTD provided $147,000 in additional funding to the City of Santa Fe to address litter in the targeted areas of Cerrillos Road, St. Francis Drive and St. Michaels Drive, along with nearby arroyos. All 32 state-owned buildings in Santa Fe have been cleared of litter, debris, and are planned for landscaping upgrades. Building off a successful downtown clean-up event this month, additional state resources will be invested in business district clean-up efforts across the City of Santa Fe in 2024. 

The state has also been working on beautification efforts along thousands of miles of highway this year after securing additional legislative funding for litter clean-up from FY22 to FY23.