A century ago, workers named the thick groves of mesquite trees growing along the rail line north of Tucson “Marana,” a reference to the Spanish term referring to dense shrubbery.
The town was almost called “Postvale” — named after local developer Edwin Post — but that name didn’t stick.
Fast forward to twenty years ago: The town was well on its way transforming farmland into a growing suburb of Tucson, and the Regional Transportation Authority started spending money on Marana roads. The voter-approved 20-year RTA plan helped to build new streets, expand existing corridors in the growing community and pay for the Twin Peaks exchange over Interstate 10 and the nearby Union Pacific Railroad rail lines.
Now, the 64,000 residents of Marana are being asked to back the continuation of the RTA and its half-cent sales tax, via RTA Next, or Propositions 418 and 419.
So what is in the RTA Next proposal for those living in the town northwest of Tucson?
We sat down with Fausto Burruel, the town’s Public Works Director, to get some answers.
During busy periods, traffic backs up along Silverbell Road, which could would widen to two lanes in each direction if RTA Next passes next month. (Image courtesy Pima County)
While there are many facets to the $2.67 billion RTA Next plan, our conversation with Burruel focused on some of the larger capital projects. This includes the long-promised, and still not finished, Silverbell Road widening project.
Silverbell Road is one of the biggest north-south corridors for Marana. Improvements to the busy two-lane road were promised under the 2006 RTA plan, but the majority of the roughly 10 miles of road that runs through Marana is still a cracked and crumbling two-lane thoroughfare.
RTA Next pledges to finish that project and widen Silverbell into a four-lane divided roadway.
And it's kind of a critical road, considering it's the main alternative route when there is an accident on Interstate 10.
The landscape is wide. The road is not.
Similarly, one section of Tangerine Road between Interstate 10 and Dove Mountain Blvd and Twin Peaks Road was delayed due to cost escalations over the last 20 years. Burruel said the roughly three-mile stretch of road will be widened under the RTA Next plan.
Marana isn’t alone in some projects being delayed by the increasing costs of construction, which went way above the estimates planners came up with more than 20 years ago. (The problem was compounded by revenues not meeting projections.) Officials have pointed to the COVID pandemic and the Great Recession as reasons why RTA collected roughly $350 million less than they had initially projected back in 2006. 1
Marana is split in half by I-10 and the Union Pacific Railroad line.
And substantial growth in Marana on both sides of I-10 over the last two decades have led to traffic backing up during rush hour or when a really long train passes through the town.
So in the RTA Next plan, the town has prioritized a new traffic interchange at I-10 and Moore Road, saying the two-year project would help alleviate traffic at the Tangerine and Cortaro Road exits.
Aging ADOT traffic interchanges, coupled with the proximity of the Union Pacific Railroad at-grade vehicle crossing, create congestion and logistical challenges for commuters, schools, emergency services, and businesses, Burruel said.
“A new grade separated interchange will allow safe and unimpeded traffic flow across I-10 that does not currently exist in the area, which helps commuters and emergency services,” Burruel said.
Here is what a grade separated Cortaro Road interchange might look like if voters approved RTA Next. (Photo courtesy town of Marana.)
Once Moore Road is complete, later phases of the RTA Next plan would rebuild those exits to go over I-10 and rail lines.
City officials have long said that the planned traffic improvements are key to the town’s growth and economic success.
But some long-time local residents who voted for the 2006 plan are skeptical after waiting decades for promised road improvements, only to see a handful of projects pushed back to the RTA Next plan.
Ballots for Propositions 418 and 419 were mailed out earlier this week.
Locking it down: The training for teachers and staff at TUSD now includes an ominous sign of the times: You can’t assume federal law enforcement will identify themselves, present a warrant or even check in at the front office, per the Arizona Luminaria’s Shannon Conner. Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo says anyone who refuses to identify themselves will be considered an intruder and trigger a campus lockdown.
Turning to the public: As the investigation drags on, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department asked people who live within a few miles of Nancy Guthrie’s house to send in video footage of vehicles, people and anything out of the ordinary from Jan. 1 to Feb. 2, KGUN’s Denelle Veselik reports. Tips keep flooding the sheriff’s department, including 4,000 calls in a single day after photos and videos of a person at Guthrie’s doorstep were released, Sarah Lapidus reports for the Republic.
Heavy reading: The publicity pamphlet for the RTA Next election has twice as many arguments submitted by the public than the original RTA plan did in 2006, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tim Steller and Charles Borla report. You have to pay $25 to submit an argument, so the 209 arguments in the pamphlet that was mailed out this week brought in $5,200 in fees, which doesn’t quite cover the $800,000 cost to print and mail the pamphlets (which the county is required by law to do).
No nuclear options: Pima County officials wouldn’t be able to stop nuclear reactors from being built if a bill from Republican Rep. Justin Wilmeth becomes law, the Arizona Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy reports. The only step nuclear power companies would have to take at the local level would be a single meeting to get feedback from the public. HB2456 is similar to a bill Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed last year and promotes nuclear tech that experts say isn’t quite ready for prime time.
Support local journalism so we can go nuclear when powerful people try to slip things by the public.
What we’ll be watching: Bill Buckmaster will have Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher on his radio show today, just a few days after she announced her retirement. We’re listening in to hear what Lesher has to say about the future of Pima County. Also, you can catch Joe on Arizona Public Media’s “The Press Room” today here. Topics included the continued search for Nancy Guthrie, the RTA Next election, and Tucson Police Department’s new chief of police, Monica Prieto.
Maybe it is the two word title that remind us of “Parks and Recreation.”
State House Democrats launched their new “The House” mini-series on Twitter yesterday, featuring Tucson Democrat Nancy Gutierrez in their first episode.
We definitely got Leslie Knope vibes when the former teacher and part-time yoga instructor pointed to a sign in her office that reads “You did not wake up today to be a weak-ass bitch.”
We wonder what Episode 2 will be like. We’re hoping the next Democrat featured gives off some Ron Swanson energy.
1 The RTA is not solely funded by sales taxes, but it makes up a lion’s share of their budget.