Popular walking bridge to reopen in San Juan County

AZTEC, N.M. — “Closing this bridge created a lot of turmoil with a lot of people, but once they see, and I’m sure a lot of people drive by this road. This is one of the busiest roads in Aztec, they’ll be ecstatic to know this is back,” said Mayor of Aztec, Mike Padilla Sr. 

Now the state Transportation Department is wrapping up the project that restores the pedestrian walkway on the “Money Saving Bridge” in Aztec.

For more than a year and a half, a sign has stopped people wanting to cross the bridge in their tracks. 

“It was a huge project that we really needed done. It created a huge issue, especially in our city meetings, people come and complain about it. There’s a lot of dog walkers in our town, we’ve got parks on both sides of the highway, and it just really hindered a lot of people going east and west,”  said Padilla.

Walkers waited for more than a year for three weeks of work on the deck and railing that will be done soon. 

“The citizens when they realize that the bridge is open again, there’s going to be a lot of people happy with it,” Padilla said. 

If you don’t live around here, you may not know how the bridge got its unofficial name. Think, “Cross over that Money Saving Bridge to Hi-Country Chevrolet.” 

“It was just a marketing campaign that blew up. Rest assured it’s not the City of Aztec’s bridge, it’s NMDOT’s bridge, and it’s not the Hi-Country that’s who designed it,” Padilla said.

The name stuck. 

“It’s something that really stands out in the community when you say ‘Cross that Money Saving Bridge,’ they know exactly what it means,” said Padilla.