The final section of the Mount Lemmon Highway improvement has won a national award for its response to a number of rare environmental and geological problems and for overcoming setbacks from the 2003 Aspen Fire.
Officially named the General Hitchcock Highway, the road underwent an improvement project for 17 years while crews rebuilt and widened it section by section. The last 4.7-mile section, done between April 2003 and July 2005, won the 2006 American Public Works Association award for projects costing between $10 million and $100 million.
The road won a similar award from the Arizona chapter of the association.
The General Hitchcock Highway is the main route from Tucson to Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains. It was built during the 1930s through 1950s. The improvement work started in 1988.
The last 4.7-mile phase was the most challenging, according to the nomination submitted by the Federal Highway Administration.
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The contractors had to work around habitats for wildlife and two endangered species, the peregrine falcon and the Mexican spotted owl. They also faced towering rock pinnacles called hoodoos, which could have been damaged by road construction and blasting, as well as a natural rock bridge and unusual vegetation.
If Hunter Contracting Co. Inc. damaged any of the delicate natural features, fines from $100,000 to $500,000 could have been assessed.
The project worked not only with those features, but also with the residents of Summerhaven, the town on Mount Lemmon.
The Aspen Fire, which destroyed many businesses and homes on the mountain, started in June 2003, a few months after the final stage of work began.
The contractors worked closely with residents and businesses to rebuild structures in Summerhaven, which required deliveries of many truckloads of materials up the mountain during the road work.
Contractors changed the road closure schedule and worked at night to accommodate the deliveries.
After all that, the project finished four months ahead of schedule.
The state award was presented Monday night in Prescott. The national award will be presented during the American Public Works Association exposition Sept. 10-13 in Kansas City, Mo.
The Tucson Department of Transportation won the association's Arizona chapter award for structures in the $2 million to $10 million range for its Pennington Street Garage, which opened in August 2005.
The garage at North Sixth Avenue and East Pennington Street is solar-powered and uses a state-of-the-art electronic payment system, said Tucson Department of Transportation spokesman Michael Graham.
It has 750 parking spaces, with office and restaurant space on the ground floor.
