Drivers on Ina Road have about a year until they'll be prohibited from making left turns onto Oracle Road.
Some will rejoice, and some will cringe, but the Pima County Department of Transportation intends to move forward with plans to eliminate left turns for traffic on Ina at the busy intersection on the northwest side of town. Oracle Road traffic would still be able to turn left onto Ina.
The idea is to replace left turns with a concept called "indirect left turns." That means if you're driving westbound on Ina, instead of turning left to get to southbound Oracle, you'd instead go straight through the intersection. You'd make a U-turn at a new traffic signal west of Oracle, and then a right turn from eastbound Ina to southbound Oracle. A similar configuration would be in place for eastbound Ina drivers hoping to turn north onto Oracle.
Pima County officials say this will reduce waiting times at busy intersections and will prevent some of the backup from happening in the left-turn lanes there.
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The concept is dubbed a "Michigan left turn" because it was pioneered in that state. It's also the future of many major intersections along Grant Road from Oracle to Swan roads. When that stretch of Grant is widened, the city wants to convert the major intersections to this indirect left-turning plan.
County officials said they're waiting for state approval on the plan, in part because Oracle is a state highway. They'd like to get the project out to bid in fall of this year and start construction next January, Priscilla Cornelio said. A majority of residents and businesses in the area support the plan, Cornelio said, and the county has addressed a number of their issues in making the plan.
The change is part of a $5 million overhaul at the intersection, which includes adding double right-turn lanes on westbound Ina, another attempt to ease congestion along Ina. The Regional Transportation Authority is paying for the project with funds raised from a countywide half-cent-per-dollar sales tax.
Road Q
Question: "I travel from Oro Valley to Nogales frequently. I understand why the southbound speed limit is reduced from 75 mph to 65 mph from Kilometer Post 68 to Exit 63, most likely due to the number of exits and the local traffic in the Sahuarita and Green Valley area. But why doesn't it go back up to 75 shortly after Exit 63 instead of changing at Kilometer Post 58? There are no exits of any kind from 63 to the exit at 56, and then shortly thereafter the rest area," Phil Zielinski wrote.
Answer: "On northbound I-19, the speed limit starting about three miles south of Continental Road is set at 65 mph to ensure a reasonable limit for motorists entering Green Valley. The speed zones in the area were set several years ago with an understanding that there were growing residential developments on the east side of I-19 south of Continental Road," wrote Linda Ritter, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Transportation.
"For safety, ADOT standards require both sides of the interstate to have the same speed limits, so the speed limit along southbound I-19 for about three miles past Continental Road is also 65 mph. ADOT plans to review vehicle speeds through this area," Ritter said.
Road Runner addresses road-related issues in this column on Mondays. Send your Road Q questions by e-mail to roadrunner@azstarnet.com or to 4850 S. Park Ave., Tucson, AZ 85714. Please include your first and last names.
