Many readers have asked Road Runner about the RTA/city of Tucson plan to extend Sabino Canyon Road south to Kolb Road.
The plan calls for extending Sabino Canyon south, two lanes in each direction, on the west side of Udall Park, over a former landfill and connecting with Kolb Road north of Speedway.
A bridge would be built across the Pantano Wash connecting the two sides.
The project, originally scheduled for Phase 1 of the RTA plan with a 2014 completion date, has run up against some neighborhood opposition.
A pocket of residential development fills an area south of Tanque Verde Road between the wash and the park. But it hasn’t been angry neighbors that have pushed this project back.
Instead, a bureaucratic hang- up has kept the plan from completion.
Tucson Department of Transportation spokesman Michael Graham said the city has been ready to go on the project, but it has to wait for the Arizona Department of Transportation to approve a draft environmental assessment of the project.
The environmental report is a federal requirement because the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a major funder of the project. About $13 million in federal grants will make up the bulk of the project budget. The city and the RTA will provide the remaining $9 million.
Both ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration have to approve the draft
“There are many factors involved in project development, including preliminary engineering and design issues, as well as a myriad of environmental laws and regulations that have to be considered to meet federal approval,” ADOT spokesman Dustin Krugel wrote in an email.
Krugel said the draft document has been through three ADOT reviews and now rests in FHWA hands.
He said the FHWA could approve the plan by July.
Graham said the city plans to hold a public hearing on the plan, after which the FWHA should give final approval.
If that goes as planned, construction could begin in late summer or the fall.
The Kolb extension is expected to alleviate congestion at the intersections of Grant Road and Tanque Verde and Sabino Canyon and Tanque Verde.
A 2011 city analysis of traffic flows notes the peak volumes at Grant and Tanque Verde reached more than 900 cars per hour.
For instance, southbound left-turn volume from Grant to Tanque Verde was 921 cars per hour.
Northbound right turns from Kolb onto Tanque Verde reached more than 500 cars per hour.
Left and right turns from southbound Sabino Canyon onto Tanque Verde were more than 820 and 1,200 cars per hour, respectively.
The report also notes the air quality around the Grant/Kolb/Tanque Verde intersection was the worst measured in the city, with high concentrations of carbon monoxide in the air.
Down the road
Starting Tuesday, city crews will drill test holes on Grant Road from Sparkman Boulevard, east of Country Club Road, to Arcadia Avenue, east of Swan Road.
The work is intended to determine the soil characteristics prior to the start of an upcoming resurfacing project.
Work is scheduled to be completed Friday. Work hours will be 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
One travel lane in each direction will be closed during this work.
On Wednesday, starting at 9 a.m., crews from the city of Tucson Department of Transportation Streets and Traffic Maintenance Electric Shop will replace a median island streetlight pole at Speedway and Alamo Avenue, one block west of Wilmot Road.
Eastbound and westbound median island travel lanes near the work, as well as the turn bay from eastbound Speedway to northbound Alamo Avenue, will be closed.
The work is scheduled to be complete by 1 p.m. the same day.
