Road Runner: Houghton project rolling right along

Houghton Road, long the two-lane bane of commuters’ existence, is well on the way to becoming a three-lane thing of beauty.

I’ve driven Houghton hundreds of times on my way to and from Sierra Vista, where my family and I lived. We’d often avoid it, though, taking Valencia off Interstate 10 instead.

Now, although certain areas aren’t complete, the years-long vision of engineers, planners — and taxpayers — is coming to fruition.

I’ve lived here about 15 years now, and my parents and sister live here too; therefore, driving Houghton isn’t something I do often any more. So my husband and I took a cruise Sunday from Broadway south.

Here’s what we saw:

Lots of construction at Broadway and Houghton, with intermittent work being done until you reach the Pantano Wash. There the road turns into three lanes, with landscaped medians, walking and biking paths adorned with green railings, and landscaped roadways.

The road narrows and then widens as you go, depending on how far along the work is. One place where no work has been done is the hill atop which sits the grandpa of Houghton Road: Tucson McGraw’s Cantina, 4110 S. Houghton Road.

Turning right, or west, into the parking lot is not a problem. Turning left, even on a slow Sunday afternoon, means a line of traffic backs up behind you. Kinda scary. No, really scary, because some drivers pass you on the shoulder.

What do customers and workers at McGraw’s think? Overall, they’re happy the work is getting done at all — “better late than never,” patron Debra Jones, 62, said.

Randy Russell, 50, who’s lived in the nearby Redington Hills neighborhood since 1990, said the roadwork is “absolutely good.”

Bartender Rachelle Lawrence, 31, said the road needs to be widened soon near Secrist Middle School or a sidewalk added. People dropping off and picking up kids park along neighboring streets, blocking driveways. And kids walk along Houghton road right next to traffic.

She also said further south where the road turns into three lanes there’s something else to watch out for:

“Up there where they widened it, it’s awesome but there’s a cop there giving people tickets.”

The project doesn’t stop at Broadway. North of Speedway, it will widen Houghton to four lanes all the way to Tanque Verde.

Here are some project details, provided by Sheila Storm, communications director for the Pima Association of Governments.The Houghton corridor is 13 miles long and is broken into several projects that will be built over many years, as the funding becomes available, she wrote in an email.

“The predominate funding source is the RTA (Regional Transportation Authority), with other local funding also included for some of the projects.”

Pieces of Houghton currently being done, or still in the works, include:

• Irvington to Valencia is about done, needing just some signage and small erosion protection additions after the rains.
• The Houghton/Broadway intersection is about 80 percent done.
• The Houghton/Broadway Park and Ride project will begin Sept. 4.
• Broadway to 22nd Street utilities are being relocated for an anticipated October start to construction.
• The bridge over the Union Pacific Railroad is expected to start construction in June 2015.

• The bridge to I-10 is 80 percent designed, and also expected to start construction in June 2015.

• Funding for Valencia to Old Vail/Mary Ann Cleveland Way was just approved, with construction slated for April of 2015.
• The project adjacent to the McGraw’s Cantina is not currently scheduled for work, but their turning concerns are included in the concept plans.

That’s a lot of information to take in, and Road Runner will continue to update this project as it continues. Hmm, I guess that will mean another trip to Tucson McGraw’s.