North of Tesuque Village Road, Bishop's Lodge Road has no bike lanes and no sidewalks. For most of its length the shoulders are asphalt or dirt. The travel lanes run 8 to 11 feet wide, and one stretch narrows to a single 12-foot one-way section. Heading north, the posted speed drops from 35 mph to 25. Heading south, it goes from 25 to 35, then to 50 mph below Bishop's Lodge Resort.
Santa Fe County recorded those measurements in a road safety study done in fall 2022 and published as a final report in January 2023. More than three years later, two public projects are aimed at this road. One is small and sits at the village's edges. The other is large and covers the city stretch running south toward downtown. Only the small one has its money.
What the county measured in 2022
The Tesuque Roads Safety Study looked at Bishop's Lodge Road and Tesuque Village Road, plus Arroyo Griego Road, a prescriptive easement that connects the two. It describes the corridors as facing "challenges common to rural roadways, including visibility, lighting, speed, and a lack of multimodal infrastructure." For the southern segment inside city limits, it points to the City of Santa Fe's own reconstruction materials, which document speeding, missing pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and ADA issues.
The study found that 1.3 percent of Tesuque commuters walked and 0.3 percent biked. It did not read those low numbers as simple preference:
"might also reflect the perceived safety and multimodal accessibility in the area."
The 2022 Tesuque Community Plan makes a related point from the community's side. It names motorists, bikers, bicyclists and hikers heading to public lands as the people who use these roads, and it calls for safety improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists. The Tesuque Valley Community Association started that planning process, and the county adopted the plan in 2022.
A residents' audit and a long list of fixes
The study was more than a desk exercise. Six Tesuque residents sat on the road safety audit team: Lynn Pickard, Jeanne Boyles, Dale Osmun, Jamie Gagan, Bruce McAllister and Patrick Hanson.
The team's recommendations range from cheap paint to major construction, and each one carries a cost estimate and a timeline. The ones that touch Bishop's Lodge Road most directly:
- Oversized speed limit signs at about $1,200 per sign, near-term, on every corridor section
- Fresh edge and centerline striping at about $6,000 per mile, near-term, with a caution that sediment has to be cleared first and "constant maintenance is needed to maintain visibility"
- Sharrows and "May Use Full Lane" signs on certain sections, with sharrows at about $200 each
- Climbing bike lanes on ascents at about $20,000 per mile, which may require additional right of way
- Speed feedback signs at about $5,000 per sign, mid-term, which need power and maintenance
- Multiuse trails at about $450,000 per mile, mid-term
- Median islands and community gateway features at about $50,000 per mile, listed as long-term
The study rated gateway medians long-term, and it attached conditions: they "may impact drainage," landscaping "should not adversely impact visibility," and the gateway signs "must be crash-rated." It also gave them a 28 percent crash reduction factor, one of the higher figures in the table.
The line item that made it into SB 240
That long-term item is the one that got funded first.
On December 2, 2025, the Santa Fe County Board of County Commissioners adopted Resolution 2025-136. It directed staff to seek up to $150,000 for welcome signs set in new median islands, with road widening at three Tesuque entrances: south CR73, CR590/Bishop's Lodge Road, and north CR591/Bishop's Lodge Road. The county's 2026 legislative page says these locations come from its Tesuque safety study and describes the $150,000 as the amount needed to fully fund the project.
The Legislature passed it. Senate Bill 240, the 2026 capital outlay bill, was signed as Chapter 71 on March 11, 2026, with a partial veto. The Department of Finance and Administration's project spreadsheet for the bill, dated August 18, 2026, lists a $150,000 general fund appropriation through the Department of Transportation under the title "Santa Fe Co Tesuque Welcome Sign Median Construct." The money is "to plan, design and construct community gateway signs and median islands in the Tesuque area in Santa Fe county."
Because the appropriation covers planning and design as well as construction, the medians will go through design before anything is built. No public source gives an installation date yet, and the county's project page still describes the item as a request.
The rebuild south of the village, by the numbers
The city project is the one with bike lanes and a trail. The City of Santa Fe describes it as a reconstruction of Bishop's Lodge Road that widens the road within the existing right of way to add bicycle lanes and an adjacent trail, along with pavement and drainage improvements. When the city announced a 2022 neighborhood meeting, it said the project aimed to address "speeding, vehicular and pedestrian safety concerns, and any existing drainage issues."
Design is well along. The city's project page lists 30, 60 and 90 percent design submittals as complete. It records public meetings at the Santa Fe Convention Center on June 22, 2022, September 29, 2022 and June 17, 2024. It also still shows 100 percent drawings proposed for January 2025 and a production submittal in mid-March 2025, dates that have now passed. The construction line reads "Dependent on funding."
The city's current capital plan gives the funding gap. On June 24, 2026, the Governing Body adopted the FY2028–2032 Infrastructure Capital Improvements Plan. The two projects compare like this:
| Tesuque gateway signs and medians | Bishop's Lodge Road reconstruction | |
|---|---|---|
| Lead agency | Santa Fe County | City of Santa Fe |
| What it builds | Gateway signs, median islands, widening at three entrances | Bike lanes, adjacent trail, pavement, drainage |
| Total cost | $150,000 requested | $36,068,007 |
| Funded as of 2026 | $150,000 in SB 240 | $1,308,007 |
| Still needed | None listed | $34,760,000 |
| Stage | Appropriated; design and construction ahead | 90 percent design complete; construction tied to funding |
As of June 2026, about 3.6 percent of the reconstruction's total cost is funded. The plan does not say where the $1,308,007 came from. The two city documents also describe the extent differently. The capital plan lists Paseo de Peralta to Circle Drive. The project page describes a design running from Callecita Place to the city limits, with an earlier study length from Paseo de Peralta to the city limits. The city's Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee listed the project as "Final Design" in its FY2025 status table, which matches the project page.
The November 3 ballot
Santa Fe voters will decide on a street and pedestrian bond on November 3, 2026. The city resolution, adopted August 12, 2026, authorizes up to $11.25 million for street, sidewalk, curb-ramp and pedestrian accessibility work across the city. The resolution does not set aside any amount for Bishop's Lodge Road. Even if all $11.25 million went to this one corridor, it would cover about a third of the $34,760,000 the capital plan still lists as needed.
Advocates are pushing on speed, too. At the committee's August 14, 2025 meeting, Bike Santa Fe's board representative said the group was ramping up its "Slow Down Santa Fe" program and working toward 15-mph zones. The minutes do not tie that work to Bishop's Lodge Road.
What to watch for at each end
At the Tesuque end, the next public step is design. Resolution 2025-136 names three entrances for that work: south CR73, CR590/Bishop's Lodge Road, and north CR591/Bishop's Lodge Road. Drainage and sightlines are the conditions the 2023 study flagged for medians, so those details are worth looking for in whatever drawings the county releases.
On the city stretch toward Fort Marcy and downtown, the project needs a construction source of roughly $34.8 million that no adopted document identifies yet. The city's project page names Romella Glorioso-Moss as Capital Projects Manager, with Wilson & Company and NV5 on design. Until that money appears in a capital outlay bill or a project-specific allocation, the bike lanes and trail stay in the drawings. For now, the speed steps south of Bishop's Lodge Resort and the dirt shoulders north of Tesuque Village Road are the same as when the county measured them in 2022.
Public projects like these affect how a place gets in and out of town, and they belong in any conversation about owning property along this corridor. If you'd like to talk through what the Tesuque gateway work or a future Bishop's Lodge Road rebuild could mean for a property you own or are considering, Ayden Gramm is glad to share what we're tracking. Schedule a Consultation.
