Local opinion: RTA's Silverbell Road SNAFU begs a no vote

The RTA's seven-mile-long Silverbell Road project is a critical link for west side travelers and as a reliever for I-10. Phase 1, the mile-long southern section was completed on time in 2017. But what’s happened to the rest of this crucial project over the past twenty years? Well, pretty much nothing, and that’s a SNAFU that should cost the RTA plenty of votes in the March 10th special election.

If you’ve driven past Tucson’s Danny Lopez Park at the southeast corner of Silverbell Road and El Camino del Cerro lately, you probably noticed that the ballfield expansion project came to a grinding halt. That happened in July 2024. If you were very observant, you also noticed that the RTA’s Silverbell Road widening Phase 2, from Goret Road to El Camino del Cerro, also started and then stopped unexpectedly at the same time. This was more than a coincidence and finding out what caused the work to stop was not an easy task. It took extensive public records requests to find out.

Here’s the scoop: Back in 2024 a Tucson Parks and Recreation contractor graded a large area within a culturally sensitive archeological site of the park. The contractor then hauled this material, 118 truckloads, to use as fill material at a housing development on the Tohono O’odham reservation. In addition, the Tucson Water Department was digging holes in an archaeologically sensitive area along Silverbell Road. These sites are in the Los Pozos Archaeological Sensitivity Zone, noted for its pit houses, irrigation canals, and wells. Any excavation in these areas require permits from the state of Arizona. How these two city agencies and the contractor did not know this is a real mystery.

When the regulatory agencies learned about the unpermitted excavations, stop work orders ensued, and a mitigation plan was required to satisfy regulators and tribes. Eighteen months later, this plan is still an ongoing effort. In addition, the Silverbell Road project needs to reapply for their permits. There is hope the project will reactivate in three to six months, after which it will take about two years to complete. So, Phase 2 of Silverbell Road is several years behind schedule due to an egregious and under-reported administrative blunder.

Phase 3, the scenic and historic four-mile section from El Camino del Cerro to Ina Road, has totally stalled for other reasons, which can be summarized as a lack of a project champion. This stretch involves three jurisdictions – Tucson on the south, unincorporated Pima County in the center, and Marana on the north. In 2015, Pima County (RTA’s lead agency on the project) entered into intergovernmental agreements with Marana and the City of Tucson. But the RTA Board never entered into an agreement with the County to proceed with any of myriad and years-long pre-construction technical studies and engineering work, ostensibly because the RTA Board approved a change in cross section that also requires voter approval. On top of that, on three occasions the County and Marana refused to consider interim safety improvements because future total reconstruction was planned or because too few fatalities occurred.

The RTA Board is now hoping voters will approve both RTA Next and “significant changes” to the 2006 plan so that Phase 3 can finally kick off, even though it will be built anyhow with “regional funds” if the election fails. The unfortunate result is that Silverbell Road likely won’t be completed until the 2032-35 timeframe, almost 30 years after voters approved RTA’s initial plan. It’s as if voters on the west side are forgotten and on the wrong side of the tracks.

Just as midtown voters are enraged about RTA’s mishandling of Grant Road improvements, voters in the Tucson Mountains and throughout the region should be incensed about the blunders and inexplicable delays on Silverbell Road. This amazing lack of progress is baffling because the RTA Board stated that it has project funds available regardless of the outcome of the election. RTA’s lack of progress and, equally important, breach of trust will surely cause a loss of support for Propositions 418 and 419.