Chamber officials head to D.C. to lobby for ABQ region - Boston Business Journal:

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this week to meet elected officials. The delegationh of 23 includes businesspeople, economixc development officials and representatives from the education and nonprofit They are meeting withNew Mexico’s congressional members of President Barack Obama’s administration and nationa l organizations to advocate for issues important to Albuquerqued and the four surrounding counties. and are sponsoring the Delegates are meeting with Secretary ofLabor , U.S. Department of Transportatio n Assistant Secretary for Policy David Matsuda and staff fromthe U.S.
Department of Commerce Economic Development They are also meeting with Marc vice chairman of the National Center for Educatio andthe Economy. Transportation will be one of the delegation’xs primary issues. The delegates will seek funding for the Paseo delNortd interchange, part of a major east-west arterial. The New Mexico Departmentt of Transportation is seeking federal fundingof $350 million from the Americab Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s special grant fund for transportation. A $20 milliojn environmental study is scheduled for completionthis summer.
The group will also seek fundingt for theInterstate 25/ interchange, the Southern Sandovaol County transportation study and the Valencia Countyt I-25 interchange and transportation , where Fidelity has a new service center, is a massive planned development south of the Albuquerque International Sunport. Other companiea at the project includweAdvent Solar; Schott Solar, which is buildingh a production facility; and Albuquerque Studios. The delegation is seeking $500,00o0 for the Sandoval County study to deal with bottleneckzs inRio Rancho, which is connectef to Albuquerque by only two major roads.
The monet for a study of transportation alternatives for southerjn Sandoval County would come fromthe U.S. Department of Transportation’ s Federal Transit Administration. The options mightr include light rail, magnetic levitation trains (maglev), dedicatec bus lanes and high-occupancy vehicle lanes. The delegates are seeking $150 million for design and constructiob of the Valencia County interchangew for a crossing over the Rio Grande Rived inLos Lunas. Sherma n McCorkle, chairman of the Albuquerque Regional Economid Alliance and president and CEO of TechnologyVenturese Corp.
, said about 50 percent of the state’s population is in Albuquerque and the four surrounding and more than 75 percent of the state’s economic activity occursw there. “Given that the guidelines for local use of the federal stimulus funds have not yet been it is very important for our regiona group to provide information that will help focusd these guidelines onjob creation,” he said.