Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

Chapter 3. Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences
Traffic Safety
Figure 76 depicts links between the proposed action and traffic safety outcomes.
Figure 76. Links between the project and traffic safety outcomes
Traffic safety is an important issue from a community and public health perspective. Traffic
injury or fatality is a highly visible, tragic, and largely preventable public health outcome. The
proposed action has the potential to change traffic safety in the local area by adding construction
and operations vehicles to local and regional roadways and by workers transporting themselves to
the Roca Honda Mine (project) site.
Motor vehicle injuries and fatalities are significant health issues in Cibola and McKinley
Counties, with rates of traffic fatalities higher in these areas than in the State of New Mexico (see
table 88). Overall collision rates for Gallup and Grants in 2009 were 38 per 1,000 people and 23
per 1,000 people, respectively (NMDOT, 2011). Alcohol was and is a significant factor in many
of these collisions. In 2008 in Cibola County alcohol was involved in 83 percent of all fatal
crashes and 19 percent of all collisions resulting in injury. In McKinley County alcohol was
involved in 67 percent of all fatal crashes and 17 percent of all crashes resulting in injury
(NMDOT, 2008).
For the proposed action, project-related traffic will comprise both vehicles (mainly trucks) used to
transport materials and equipment, and vehicles used to transport workers. Worker transportation
will comprise both private vehicles, which will be used for workers to commute to the project site
from their temporary or permanent residences (mainly in Grants and Gallup), and company
vehicles that will be used to transport personnel during their work shifts.
For the proposed action, several aspects of project-related traffic for during construction,
operation and decommissioning have the potential to impact traffic safety.
1. The number of vehicles on the road. A higher number of vehicles means a higher number
of collisions, with some resulting in injury or fatality.
Construction is expected to last 7 years and will overlap with the operations phase for
approximately 3.5 years. However, the number of construction vehicles required during
the construction phase is not known at this time. It is estimated that several hundred
workers would be required for project construction at its peak (Velasquez et al., 2012);
however, it is also unknown how many vehicles would be required to transport these
workers to the project site at given times of day.
404 DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest