Tijeras Canyon Residents Grumble Over Rumble Strips

Elizabeth McCall/The Independent

Residents of the Tijeras Canyon area will soon sleep peacefully without the continuous noise disturbance of the rumble strips on I-40 East, now that the New Mexico Department of Transportation has a solution to the noise, with just a few paint stripes.

What’s all the rumble?

Rumble strips are meant to act as a road safety feature that alerts drivers they have traveled outside of the lane, but Tijeras Canyon residents consider it the opposite based on the placement of these specific rumble strips. The alert strips’ standard placement is 12 to 16 inches outside of the line but the strips through the canyon were placed directly on the painted line. 

Not only has the community been disturbed by the noise of cars and semi-trucks constantly driving over the strips, but they also have safety concerns. In December 2023, Christina Ting, a resident of the community, posted on Nextdoor to connect with other residents about this issue and they began emailing NMDOT. They also sent a petition to NMDOT with more than 250 signatures. 

“I remember just like waking up one day and the noise was so invasive into my house that I was like, I have to move I can’t live here but then I thought at least let’s give it a shot and see how hard it will be to fight this,” Ting said. “That’s when I posted on Nextdoor and reached out to Rep. Stefani Lord and she was probably the first person that responded to me.” 

Lord (R-Sandia Park), heard her constituents and contacted NMDOT’s Cabinet Secretary, Ricky Serna, to find a solution. Serna said in a statement to KRQE-TV news that the rumble strip placement was a distinctive approach to make the edge line more discernible for safer driving conditions. Serna said NMDOT’s solution was to paint an additional white line on the inside of the rumble strips and give drivers six months to become familiar with it. 

The NMDOT’s proposal of painting a new line would cost $48,000 and the second proposal to remove and replace the rumble strips would cost $1.61 million. Charlene Pyskoty, a resident of the area and a former Bernalillo County Commissioner, worked with Ting to bring more awareness that the proposed solution would not fix the problem. 

“To paint the lines in closer didn’t seem like the right solution to us and would probably do nothing in terms of trucks,” said Pyskoty. “The big problem is the semi-trucks hitting the rumble strip and they would probably continue to hit the rumble strips, but it would also increase the probability of accidents pushing those trucks closer together and closer to cars. That was not a viable solution.” 

In March, Joseph Karnes, partner at Sommer Karnes & Associates, LLP, was hired to represent the concerned residents and sent a letter to Serna that said narrowing the lane width is contrary to the Federal Highway Association’s directive and puts drivers at risk. The NMDOT decided to fix this problem and is planning construction in May or June to move the rumble strips outward. 

“Ricky Serna was responsive, recognized the issue and made the decision not to wait six months and paint the strip,” Karnes said. “Fortunately, we were able to achieve it in relatively short order and we are very pleased by that.” 

The Independent contacted NMDOT but did not receive a response as of press time. 

Residents are at ease knowing there is now a plan in place to fix this disturbance and NMDOT plans to hold a community meeting at the beginning of April to discuss the construction process further. 

“NMDOT just didn’t give us any commitment on a real fix and that was the frustrating part,” Ting said. “It’s okay now that the noise is there, people are able to wait, you know, a month or two and to deal with it because we now have a solution.”