Too Many Fields In A Query

There are 2 types of paths a project can follow: ELC and SDLC. In my database, the user must choose which path they are following for their project.

Once they choose a path, they must then fill in one of the two appropriate grid with dates.

The two grids have around 40 fields each.

I am trying to write a query that looks at the response entered for Path and then looks to see if the user entered dates in the wrong grid. (If they choose ELC, they shouldn't have values in the SDLC grid).

For example: iif(Path="ELC" and SDLCDate1<>Null or SDLCDate2<>Null or ...,SDLCDate40<>Null,"Red",Null)

But typing SDLCDate1...SDLCDate40 <> Null is time consuming, messy and Access probably won't allow such a big query.

Is there any workaround?

Thanks,