New Mexico has joined a growing list of states struggling to find money in their transportation budgets for rest area maintenance.

While Mark Slimp, chief public information officer for the New Mexico Department of Transportation, admitted his agency is considering closing some of its rest areas, he told Land Line that a final decision has not been made yet on how many, or if any, will be closed.

“We are analyzing our budget and our revenues from our (state) road fund,” Slimp said. “Once we have all of the necessary data, we will make some decisions.

He said there is no set timetable for when a decision will be made on whether to close some of the state’s 32 rest areas. Closing half of the sites could save the state as much as $1.6 million in maintenance costs. New Mexico is currently facing a $160 million budget shortfall.

Some states, including Virginia and Arizona, closed rest areas because of budget shortfalls and are now reopening critical safety rest areas. In Virginia, all 19 rest areas have been reopened, while Arizona is in the process of reopening nine sites by fall after closing 13 sites last fall because of a $100 million budget deficit.

– By Clarissa Kell-Holland, staff writer
clarissa_kell-holland@landlinemag.com