If voters OK plan, RTA Next would spend $1.5B on Pima County roads

If approved by Pima County voters in March, the RTA Next plan would spend more than $1.5 billion on roads in the Tucson metro area.

Proposition 418, which is the overall RTA Next Plan, and Proposition 419, which extends the current sales tax for another 20 years to pay for the projects, are on the March 10 ballot.

There’s $1.16 billion for 31 new road projects in the plan. In addition, local cities and towns would get $177 million for rebuilding arterial roads, while another $257.6 million would be spent completing projects from the first 20-year RTA, which was approved by voters in 2006.

RTA Next

The road projects “occur throughout the region,” said Southern Arizona Leadership
Council President and CEO Ted Maxwell, who serves on the RTA Board as a
representative of the State Transportation Board. “They are spread out.
Pima County has seven projects in there. Marana’s got four. Sahaurita’s
got two. The Pascua Yaqui have one.”

Here’s a sample of the 31 new road projects:

• Widening Colossal Cave Road between I-10 and Camino Loma Alta to four lanes and installing a grade-separated interchange with the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. Cost: $173 million.
• Widening Thornydale Road between Cortaro Road and Tangerine Road to four lanes. Cost: $97 million.
• Widening Mary Ann Cleveland Way between Houghton Road and Colossal Cave Road to four lanes. Cost: $87 million.
• Modernizing Prince Road between Romero Road and Country Club Road. Cost: $77 million.
• Modernizing Drexel Road between South 12th Avenue and Country Club Road. Cost: $71 million.
• Modernizing Irvington Road between 15th Avenue and Tucson Boulevard. Cost: $56 million.
• Widening Lambert Lane between Thornydale Road and Rancho Sonora Drive to four lanes. Cost: $55 million.
• Widening Valencia Road between Mission Road and Camino de Oeste to a six-lane divided highway. Cost: $49.5 million.
• Widening Pima Mine Road from I-19 to Nogales Highway to four lanes. Cost: $23 million.
• Modernizing Campbell Avenue from Benson Highway to Valencia Road. Cost: $35 million.
• Improving La Villita Road between Sahuarita Road and Nogales Highway. Cost: $34 million.
• Building a new traffic interchange at Moore Road and I-10. Cost: $30 million.

Find a complete list of projects here.

Early voting begins Feb. 11. The deadline to register to vote is Feb. 9.