New MexicoRoute 599 is a state highway located entirely within Santa Fe County in New Mexico. It is known as the Veterans Memorial Highway and the Santa Fe Relief Route; both names are used on road signs. The latter name alludes to the highway's original purpose of bypassing the urbanized areas of Santa Fe and thereby relieving it from shipments of hazardous waste. It passes through less densely developed terrain in and around the northwestern boundary of the municipality. This expressway's total length is approximately. The speed limits on it range from.
Route description
At its southern end, NM-599 begins at the traffic light controlled intersection of itself, Cerrillos Road, and Avenida del Sur about south of the municipal boundaries of Santa Fe. The speed limit is as the expressway crosses under and connects mostly at-grade with Interstate 25's frontage roads and exit ramps, providing intermediate access from the freeway to a horse racetrack, businesses and homes on the frontage road. After a traffic light on the route at I-25's western frontage road, the speed limit increases from for approximately, as the expressway travels north up and over two hills, passing to the west of some of the city's newer neighborhoods and to the east of the Santa Fe Municipal Airport, before slowing again to 45 mph as it approaches the remaining traffic light controlled intersection on the route at Airport Road. As the highway leaves the industrial and residential area near the intersection with Airport Road, the speed limit increases to and it crosses the Santa Fe River. After the river the relief route's western frontage road begins. The relief route then turns to the northeast and begins a long moderate climb through rolling terrain with grasses and juniper shrubs punctuated by mostly light residential development, as the road follows at a distance the city's northwestern boundary, until it reaches a diamond interchange with Camino la Tierra. The western frontage road continuously follows the expressway on this section of the route and it bulbs out at two at-grade intersections with local highways controlled by stop signs. The western frontage road ends at Camino la Tierra. There are two more at-grade intersections, one of which is an unused stub, on the route as the expressway continues to the northeast and enters the city of Santa Fe's northern incorporated area, which is projected to be developed, but is largely open space. There is another diamond interchange at the route's highest point, which at is almost higher than the route's junction with I-25 approximately to the southwest. As the expressway crosses under Ridgetop Road the speed limit decreases to and the highway descends promptly into an arroyo. Less than a mile later NM-599 ends at a trumpet interchange with the U.S Route 84/285 freeway in Santa Fe.
Design
In contrast to several other state highways in northern New Mexico, NM-599 is paved for its entire length. Functionally, it is an expressway by being a divided highway with no driveway access. Instead, local access is provided by linked frontage roads or by way of other connecting roads. There are three diamond interchanges, one partial cloverleaf interchange at the junction with I-25 and several local highways that cross it at intervals, controlled by stop signs or traffic lights near the southern end. Upgrades to the expressway are a consideration being undertaken by the New Mexico Department of Transportation's NM 599 Corridor Study.
History
The Santa Fe Relief Route is significant as part of the road network traversed by vehicles transporting radioactive waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory north of Santa Fe to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in southern New Mexico near Carlsbad. Much of the funding for construction of the Route was supplied by the United States Department of Energy so that WIPP-bound waste from LANL would not have to pass through the center of Santa Fe. However, most of the trafficon the road is general public use and has nothing to do with WIPP waste, which is moved only at infrequent intervals in special convoys. Construction of the Route took place over a period of several years in the 1990s.
