The Pima County Board of Supervisors has asked Gov. Katie Hobbs to re-think her hands-off stance on the proposed route for Interstate 11 near Tucson.
Supervisors voted 4-1 last week for a resolution to oppose an interstate route that it says would “go through the Avra Valley, which would put a huge gash through the Sonoran Desert, add hordes of noisy pollution-spewing cars and trucks, promote thirsty and energy-consuming new commercial and residential development while destroying wildlife habitat and severing wildlife-movement corridors.”
The board has “formally opposed” a highway route through Avra Valley “and other sensitive areas” since 2007, most recently in 2021, the resolution reads.
The route that the Arizona Department of Transportation recommends parts ways with I-19 north of Green Valley, with the road then heading west around Tohono O’odham land near San Xavier before it cuts north adjacent to Tucson Mountain Park and Saguaro National Park. It also runs directly through what’s known as the Tucson Mitigation Corridor, as well as Avra Valley.
The road is supposed to be part of a link through the state between Mexico and Canada. The latest maps from the state Transportation Department show a route through Avra Valley as the “recommended alternative.’’ The agency says no final decision has been made.
The board’s vote, according to Board Chair Adelita Grijalva, was prompted by statements Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs made to Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services earlier this month.
Hobbs told Fischer that while she is not surprised that environmental groups have taken the state to court over plans for Interstate 11, she won’t intercede on the location of the new highway near Tucson.
“One of the most important (concerns) in looking at it is that, when they looked at the justification for this ... the bottleneck is not traffic, it’s the traffic for the understaffed ports of entry,” Grijalva told her colleagues on June 18. “The last time this was considered was several years ago without taking into account some of the other multimodal transportation facilities, existing corridors, (and) those things that have been expanded since.”
District 4 Supervisor Steve Christy, the sole no-vote, was formerly a board member and chair of the Arizona State Transportation Board. He told fellow board members last week that “there were significant reasons” for ADOT’s choosing the proposed route.
“In addition to the excessive use of trucks and semi’s on I-10 and the damage they were doing to the road, as well as the congestion and unfortunately to the high rate of accidents along I-10, this was designed to be a bypass where they had these semis routed outside the area,” Christy said last week. “Obviously, it had something to do with air pollution and things of that nature as well, and it also expedited the commerce and free trade, and the trade between our countries, and the free access to unfettered roadways.”
Christy shared two “issues” he had with the board’s opposition to the I-11 route: the ability for present-day highway construction to be “sensitive” to wildlife and the environment; and his desire to keep Pima County and southern Arizona “at the table” when it comes to transportation issues in the region.
Supervisor Rex Scott said supporting the resolution did not mean opposition to the overall I-11 project.
Supervisor Matt Heinz pushed for the resolution to include alternatives, like high-speed rail through the Phoenix-Tucson corridor.
