Why Is the North Valley's Old Route 66 Getting Narrower in Its Centennial Year?

What happens to a road built to get travelers to Santa Fe when the people living along it ask to slow it down? On Fourth Street NW, the answer is arriving this fall in two pieces. The first is the City of Albuquerque's restriping between Menaul and Candelaria. The second is Bernalillo County's reconstruction from Ortega Road to Alameda Boulevard. Both shrink four lanes to one lane each way plus a center turn lane. They run on different clocks, under different governments, with different goals. The street that carried Route 66 traffic from 1926 to 1937 will spend the next year or so as a patchwork. Some of it will already be a main street. Some of it will still be waiting.

The Highway That Came Down Fourth

Route 66 traffic once reached Albuquerque from Santa Rosa by way of Santa Fe and Bernalillo, then came down North Fourth Street. That was the route from 1926 until the 1937 realignment. Visit Albuquerque places the Los Ranchos Fourth Street commercial district on that pre-1937 alignment, the stretch that ran north toward Santa Fe.

Retired librarian Joe Sabatini has spent the centennial year presenting the street's history in the Albuquerque Public Library's Route 66 Centennial Speaker Series. The library's description of his talk sums up the arc:

"He describes its evolution as a city street, a federal highway, a suburban commercial strip and a redeveloping urban transit corridor."

That last phase, the redeveloping corridor, is the one being striped and poured right now. Sabatini's phrase for Fourth is "the most beautiful ugly street in the world." The 2026 projects are trying to make it a little less of the second thing.

Two Road Diets, Two Clocks

The two projects look alike on a rendering. They differ in nearly everything that decides when a driver or pedestrian will notice them.

That difference in scale explains the difference in timing. The city is mostly removing old lane markings and painting new ones, so its window is measured in weeks. The county is rebuilding the roadway and the drainage under it, and its own forecast runs more than a year.

What the City Stretch Looks Like This Month

On the city segment, the posted traffic control plan works in halves. Crews close the left lanes northbound and southbound first, remove the old markings, then lay out and stripe the new pattern. After that, traffic control moves to right-lane closures in both directions so crews can finish the removals and striping there. A driver on this stretch in early October should expect the closures to switch sides partway through, so one week's lane pattern may not hold the next.

The schedule may also run long. North Valley News reported on Sept. 24 that city officials expected to start that week, hoped to finish in early October, and expected recent rainstorms to cause some delay. The city's project page still lists Oct. 8 as the end of construction and Oct. 16 as the project duration date. It names Paul Sanchez of the City of Albuquerque as the construction contact and says email is the preferred way to reach him, at [email protected].

The page is clear about where the project came from. It describes the restriping as a direct response to requests from a coalition of neighborhood associations, local businesses, and area residents. It ties the work to the North Corridor Metropolitan Redevelopment Area, the city's Main Street Corridor designation, and the Complete Streets Ordinance. The on-street parking and pedestrian buffers fit that purpose. They give people reasons to park, get out, and walk between storefronts.

The County Half Is Also About Water

North of the city segment, the county project has a second job. Bernalillo County's June 23, 2026 announcement lists the expected lane reduction and bike lanes. It also lists curb and gutter infrastructure and a new storm drainage system meant to help reduce flooding along the corridor. KRQE's March report on the project also named ADA access and pedestrian-safety work.

The county held a public information meeting on June 30 at the Raymond G. Sanchez Community Center, 9800 Fourth St. NW, to go over the schedule. As of early October, no county closure notice, detour plan, or confirmed groundbreaking has surfaced in the public record. The county's project page lists the work under "Construction" with a "Summer 2026" date, but that page was first posted in February 2025. Until the county announces closures, "by fall" is a forecast. "By the end of 2027" is a target.

A Street Already Being Used Like a Main Street

While the paint and pipe catch up, the events on Fourth this fall already treat it as a place to walk.

On Monday, Oct. 5, from 5 to 10 p.m., Globito Glow in the Village fills Fourth Street from Schulte Road to Pueblo Solano Road in Los Ranchos. Globitos are 20-foot, remote-controlled scale-model hot air balloons with working burners. This year there will be 66 of them for the Route 66 centennial. Entry is free, and there will be live music and creative activity stations. Brian Maloney, president of the Los Ranchos Economic Development Board, told the Albuquerque Journal that about 5,500 people came last year and that organizers expect roughly double this year. A free shuttle runs from the Los Ranchos Antique Mall at 7901 Fourth St. NW. Mayor Lawrence Rael pointed attendees to the street's businesses as well as the balloons: "We have great businesses. We have great opportunities for folks to come and enjoy some great food and learn a lot more about the village."

New businesses are opening on that same premise. In September, ES Gym and Luxiv Wellness held a grand opening at 6211 Fourth St. KRQE described the space as a 16,000-square-foot fitness, recovery, and wellness facility, and the opening-day market drew more than 60 vendors.

Fourth Street, North by Address

These anchors show how much of the old highway is still in business, listed in order of street number:

1. Mary & Tito's Cafe, 2711 Fourth St. NW. A 2026 history of the street names it as a legacy business still operating with its original counter.
2. ES Gym and Luxiv Wellness, 6211 Fourth St. This is the September newcomer.
3. Los Ranchos Antique Mall, 7901 Fourth St. NW. It's the shuttle stop for Globito Glow.
4. Farm & Table, 8917 Fourth St. NW. It currently serves dinner.
5. Raymond G. Sanchez Community Center, 9800 Fourth St. NW. The county held its road diet meeting here.
6. El Pinto, 10500 Fourth St. NW. It opened in 1962.

The Rest of October, On and Just Off Fourth

Several fall events sit a short drive west on Rio Grande Boulevard and round out the season:

• Tour de Los Ranchos, Sunday, Oct. 11, 8:30 a.m. to noon. This guided bike tour of local farms and gardens starts at the Agri-Nature Center, 4920 Rio Grande Blvd. NW.
• Agri-Nature Center Fall Festival, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2 to 6 p.m. It's at the same address.
• "North Fourth Street – Albuquerque's Original Route 66," Saturday, Oct. 24, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Joe Sabatini gives his talk in Botts Hall at Special Collections. A final 2026 date is listed for Nov. 28. Free parking is available in the lot across the street, courtesy of the Albuquerque Historical Society. Details are on the library's event page.
• Los Ranchos Growers Market, Saturdays, 8 to 11 a.m., through Nov. 14. It's at 6718 Rio Grande Blvd. NW.

The Sabatini talk is a good one to attend while the paint is still drying. It covers every phase the street has been through, including the one now being striped between Menaul and Candelaria.

If you own along Fourth Street or within a few blocks of it and want to talk through how the city restriping and the county reconstruction might affect your property over the next year, I would be glad to share what I'm seeing on the corridor. Let's Connect.