Santa Fe County anticipates that next week it will receive results from an engineering firm on tests of a county road that runs though the heart of Lamy. Residents there are fighting a deal by an Oklahomabased company that plans on sending heavy tanker trucks to offload crude oil onto trains at a station in the small town.
Many residents of the small town southwest of Santa Fe oppose the deal in which Santa Fe Southern Railway agreed to lease sidings of the railroad tracks to Pacer Energy Marketing LLC, but there's little that local governments can do to stop it.
Pacer wants to send as many as 15 trucks per week down County Road 33 to offload oil. The county, however, suspects that road's asphalt and base cores might not be strong enough to support the anticipated traffic increase.
Adam Leigland, Santa Fe County public works director, says officials could decide to propose a weight limit ordinance on the road—which was just repaved last summer.
"The purpose of [the test] is to protect the county's investment in the road," says Leigland. (Justin Horwath)
Santa Fe Reporter