A new road linking Dove Mountain to Interstate 10 will cut down on residents' drive time without interfering too much with the area it's cutting through, officials said at an open house last week.
More than 80 people attended a public meeting Sept. 5 at Mountain View High School that updated residents on the design, alignment and construction schedule for the Camino de Mañana project.
The $30 million project, funded partly through the Regional Transportation Authority plan approved by voters in 2006, will create a new road from Camino de Mañana north to where Tangerine Road connects with Dove Mountain Boulevard.
The project also will widen Camino de Mañana from two to four lanes from West Linda Vista Boulevard to the new Dove Mountain Boulevard alignment.
Work is expected to begin in late 2008 or early 2009. The project is expected to be finished when the Regional Transportation Authority's $80 million Interstate 10-Twin Peaks Road interchange is completed in late 2009. The two projects will link up where Camino de Mañana meets Linda Vista east of I-10.
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"As soon as the (interchange) opens we want to have this opened," project manager Heather Roberts said.
The 3 1/2-mile road that will connect Dove Mountain Boulevard to Camino de Mañana will include 28 under-road wildlife crossings, a feature the Arizona Game and Fish Department recommended.
"We're putting a road where there isn't a road, so we want to provide for that wildlife," said Phil Salazar, a consultant for engineering firm Psomas.
One of the crossings, to be located just south of where the Dove Mountain Boulevard extension will intersect with West Desert Falcon Lane, will feature a pair of culverts that will each be eight feet high and 20 feet wide. Roberts said the crossing is designed for mule deer that frequent the area.
"I'm very happy they mitigated for the wildlife," said Mary Babcock, who has lived for seven years on five acres just east of the planned road. "We're happy that they want to keep the area beautiful. The wildlife is the reason we moved there."
The other wildlife crossings will be less than four feet high, Salazar said, and because the road will be at a constant slope, drivers will hardly notice the under-road crossings.
The design for the Camino de Mañana project is nearly complete, officials say. What remains undecided is whether full or partial construction will begin on the project's two roads.
That's because funding has not been secured for $5 million of the $30 million project. If the $5 million has not been acquired by the time the project starts, then only one side of each road will be built at first.
"What we would build is just half the road, and then later we would just add to it," Salazar said, noting that the northbound lanes of the alignment road and the eastbound lanes of Camino de Mañana would be built first, followed by the other lanes and the landscaped medians.
However it happens, Dove Mountain resident Allan Stockman is happy to see the project on the books. The former Federal Highway Administration official said he's looking forward to a quicker drive getting in and out of his neighborhood and down to Tucson.
"I don't like having to go way out onto Tangerine," Stockman said. The new road "looks like an attractive route."
Road project updates
Two major road-construction projects affecting the Northwest Side will begin in the next 18 months. Here are some details:
Interstate 10-Twin Peaks interchange
• Improvements: Twin Peaks Road will be extended east from Continental Ranch to Interstate 10, creating a new traffic interchange. Three bridges will be built to bring the four-lane road over the Santa Cruz River, I-10 and the Union-Pacific Railroad and connect it with Camino de Mañana at Linda Vista Boulevard on the east side of the freeway. The project also calls for adding a layer of rubberized asphalt on Twin Peaks west to Silverbell Road and on Silverbell from Twin Peaks to Cortaro Road.
• Estimated cost: $80 million.
• Timeline: Construction is expected to begin in early 2008, with an estimated completion date of late 2009.
Camino de Mañana
• Improvements: A new four-lane road will run from Dove Mountain Boulevard south of Tangerine Road to Camino de Mañana. Camino de Mañana will be widened from two to four lanes from the new road to Linda Vista Boulevard.
• Cost: $30 million.
• Timeline: Construction is expected to begin in late 2008 or early 2009, with completion expected by late 2009.
