The supervising engineer on the project says the rains of the last week have slowed roadwork on Catron a little, but he says so much headway was made during the dry months of March and April that the net effect is positive.

The bulk of the Catron Boulevard upgrade was completed last year from Highway 79 to just short of South Highway 16. D. O. T. engineer Steve Palmer says the work should be done before the Sturgis Rally in August.Palmer says,  "Probably about the only big hiccup we've had with the weather has been just this past week. We intended to do some of the concrete paving on the west end toward the intersection of Highway 16 at the end of the week. But we've had a little delay with the weather. But other than that we've had good dry weather."

The final section of Catron is now more than half done. The westbound lanes have been paved, and prep work on the eastbound lanes is underway.

Al Van Zee