Houghton work begins, sorta

But the work now being done is not the kind that involves heavy equipment and workers and detours and delays, officials with the Tucson Department of Transportation said.

That won't begin until next year at a few places between East Speedway and Interstate 10, said Jim Glock, director of the Tucson Department of Transportation.

For now, the work on Houghton is going on behind the scenes: planning and design work, including engineering studies.

Hildebrand welcomes news about the plan after enduring years of fighting increasingly heavy traffic on the two-lane roadway that bisects Tucson's rapidly growing East Side.

"I'm glad that we finally are doing something," she said.

"I wish it could've happened yesterday, but hopefully it will materialize over the next three or four years — and not any longer," Hildebrand said.

"It was needed when I moved here 14 years ago," she said. "It was needed then, and it's really needed now."

Area residents and officials have for years talked about widening Houghton Road to keep up with developments like Rita Ranch, Mesquite Ranch and Civano.

But nothing has happened — until now. The Houghton project is among dozens in the Regional Transportation Authority's 20-year plan, approved by voters in May along with a measure to authorize collection of a half-cent sales tax to pay for the projects.

Wide median planned

The plan calls for widening Houghton Road to four lanes from Interstate 10 to Tanque Verde Road, and eventually to six lanes from Interstate 10 to roughly Golf Links Road.

The initial four-lane roadway will include a 44-foot-wide median where two additional lanes can be added, Glock said last week in e-mails.

The four lanes should provide enough capacity to handle traffic through 2030, he said.

One of the extras that Al Wiruth had hoped to see — walls along the roadway to reduce traffic noise — may take a while to build.

"That could have a big impact on the people living along Houghton," especially those south of the Rita Road intersection, said Wiruth, president of the Rita Ranch Neighborhood Association.

"Some of those houses along the west side of Houghton are pretty close to the road there," he said.

City Councilwoman Shirley Scott, whose Ward 4 includes the area, said funding for some of those improvements probably will have to come from development-impact fees.

Glock said he can't say yet when two big structures located in the southern portion of Houghton will be built: bridges over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and the Pantano Wash.

Studies will be done this year on whether a new bridge over the Pantano is needed, or whether the existing bridge can be widened, he said.

As for the bridge over the railroad tracks, city officials still have a lot of coordination to do with Union Pacific, Glock said.

Intersections tackled first

Some of the work will be done in the first five-year phase of the plan and more during the third phase, beginning in 2017, Glock said.

For the first few years, most of the work will be done around intersections. There are two reasons city officials decided on that approach, Glock said:

● Most traffic congestion occurs around intersections.

● Because Houghton Road crosses many washes, the city will have to engage in the time-consuming process of coordinating with federal agencies.

The city will oversee the widening of the 12-mile stretch of Houghton Road from Interstate 10 to Speedway, Glock said.

The northern stretch of Houghton, between Speedway and Tanque Verde, will be done during the third phase, from 2017 to 2021.

There are no plans to widen Houghton south of Interstate 10, although the county Transportation Department will widen a bit of Houghton just north of Sahuarita Road as part of a project to widen the intersection there and install a traffic signal.

That troubles Sandy Whitehouse, president of the Corona de Tucson-based Santa Rita Foothills Community Association.

"We are all paying that half-cent sales tax, and yet we don't get any benefit from it," she said.

Project costs

Costs

The Regional Transportation Authority has budgeted $95.3 million for Houghton Road improvements; $65.3 million will come from federal funds and city- and county-collected developer impact fees.

The project calls for construction of a four- and six-lane "desert parkway" with new bridges, sidewalks and bike lanes.

For more information

To find out more about the Houghton Road widening, go to the authority's Web site, www.rtamobility.com.

Information about city transportation projects is available at the Tucson Department of Transportation Web site, dot.ci.tucson.az.us.