Residents in a Casas Adobes neighborhood might have been surprised to see road crews tearing up work completed just a few weeks earlier.
Pima County Department of Transportation crews this week were in the Oracle Foothills Estates neighborhood near North La Cañada Drive and West Orange Grove Road removing a shoulder along North Pomona Road even though the strip of asphalt was installed in December.
“We had applied the material on a couple of streets when several residents contacted us about concerns regarding the material,” Pima County Department of Transportation Director Priscilla Cornelio wrote in an email to the Arizona Daily Star.
Residents were worried, Cornelio said, that the recycled asphalt material county crews were using to repair the shoulders on Pomona and other neighborhood street would eventually run into area washes and cause environmental problems.
Cornelio said the material has proven to be environmentally safe.
Still, the county opted to remove the recently installed work and start over.
“Although the RAP (recycled asphalt material) is suitable for the environment, we halted the project and will repair the shoulders with compacted dirt,” Cornelio said. “RAP material holds better for erosion control than dirt does and we have used it on many roads throughout the county.”
At least one homeowner questioned the decision to remove the new asphalt.
“I don’t think the neighbors should have that much power,” Hugh Fox said.
Fox said if the work was part of the county’s regular maintenance plan and with the job completed, county officials should have kept it in place.
The cost of the work on Pomona Road was about $10,500 and was part of the county’s regularly scheduled maintenance plan, Cornelio said.
Neighbors were not notified prior to the start of work, which is typical of this type of maintenance project, Cornelia added.
Work to install the compacted soil on the shoulders of the street continued this week on Pomona Road and other streets in the area.
