Blake Hotel, Skier Plaza and Core Village Enhancements

Challenge

Taos Ski Valley wanted to create a base village and upgrade their features and infrastructure to attract more skiers and snowboarders to their remote northern New Mexico resort. At the same time, the owners wanted to keep intact the distinct character and setting that drew visitors to the area.

Solution

The project involved civil engineering design for the upgraded facilities, which included an all-new skier plaza as well as enhancements throughout the entire ski village. Site improvements surrounding the six story hotel and condominium project included new skier arrival/drop off areas, pedestrian walkways and skier plaza areas, underground parking facilities, river improvements and a regional snow storage/stormwater detention and treatment sand filter designed to meet LEED® standards. All existing utilities were relocated and redesigned to meet the future infrastructure demands of the Village.

The Village of Taos Ski Valley had many old and deteriorating utilities that ran through the parcel to be developed which required the relocation of water, sanitary sewer, storm conveyance, electrical and communication lines while still keeping the old lines in operation. The adjacent roadway was completely re-designed with all adjacent landowners realizing improvements to their roadway frontage and a new gondola plaza and pedestrian crossing was incorporated into the design.

The existing culverts conveying the Rio Hondo under Sutton Place roadway were undersized and in very poor condition. SEH modeled the 100-year flows and ran a scour analysis as part of the new crossing design which resulted in a 10 ft. by 12 ft. pre-cast box culvert solution. The bottom of the box culvert utilizes a grouted rip-rap floor to allow for fish passage, while sanitary sewer, dry utilities and even storm water headed to the detention pond are routed over the top of the box culvert.

The skier plaza was designed to interface with both an existing chairlift as well as a proposed new chairlift installed in 2018 at a completely new elevation. SEH worked with the ski lift manufacturer to establish the bottom lift terminal location, elevation and loading / queuing areas taking into account snowmaking and grooming operations to provide a seamless transition between the patio to the ski lift and trails.