By Andrew Ausel | March 11, 2016

This week New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez signed legislation into law that would allow the New Mexico Department of Transportation to utilize design-build for road and highway projects on Federal-aid highways. HB 206 and SB 215 passed both chambers by near unanimous approval on their way to the governor’s desk. In the press release regarding the signing of these bills, Governor Martinez’s office stated, “This allows one company to design and construct these projects, saving valuable time, resources, and money, while further improving New Mexico’s roads and highways.”

New Mexico, previously having no design-build authority for transportation projects, is at least partially home to 14 Federal-aid highways and has made transportation spending a top issue in past legislative sessions. Following the conclusion of last year’s session, Governor Martinez called legislators back into a special session to resolve, among other things, over $300 million in infrastructure spending in capital outlay legislation. Carrying this priority over into 2016, New Mexico has taken a key step forward through HB 206 and SB 215 to promote design-build for transportation projects. As a result, the Design-Build Institute of America will upgrade New Mexico on the Design-Build Authorization for Transportation Map from being “not specifically authorized” to “authorized with certain-limitations.”

DBIA commends the members of the New Mexico Legislature who supported the bill as well as Governor Martinez for their efforts to promote effective design-build project delivery within their state. It’s possible this legislation could be a springboard for further authority for the state and its localities in years to come. To read the Governor’s full press release, please click here.