The Arizona Department of Transportation rolled out a list of suggested road construction and upgrades for Clarkdale on Thursday, Dec. 9, mostly a wish list dependent on as yet undetermined sources of funding.
The cost of all suggested projects would be roughly $12 million at 2010 prices.
Not all of the projects identified in the proposed transportation plan lack funding. Completion of the Centerville Road between State Route 89A and South Broadway Road, a 0.17-mile stretch of two-lane road, “will provide a major east-west route through Clarkdale,” ADOT project manager Diane Kresich said.
The $325,000 project has already gone out for bids, Public Works Director Steve Burroughs said.
Another funded transportation project included in the plan is directed at pedestrians. Construction of 6-foot-wide sidewalks on either side of State Route 89A from Cement Plant Road to Black Hills Drive, a project estimated to cost $1.3 million, could be completed as soon as February, Burroughs said.
Clarkdale Fire District Chief Joe Moore, who attended the meeting, said the sidewalks will make the highway much safer for both pedestrians and motorized vehicles on State Route 89A.
Similarly, road connections like those outlined in the ADOT plan will improve firefighters’ response times when residents are in need. Under the current transportation scheme, firefighters are sometimes forced to make a wide circle to reach areas unconnected by more direct routes, Moore said.
“For me, it’s all about improving safety for our residents,” he said.
Kresich said ADOT, in cooperation with town staff, has been looking “for gaps and [making] suggestions on how to fill those gaps.” The projects have not been prioritized in order of importance, she said.
“It’s a work in progress,” Councilman Curt Bohall, who attended the meeting, said.
One of the most ambitious projects would create a north-south thoroughfare that connects Old Jerome Highway to Abbey Road North via Minerich Road. Cost of the 0.62-mile project is estimated at $1.2 million.
Another proposal would build a two-lane 0.07-mile road from Calle Carillo to Mingus Shadows Drive, connecting two Clarkdale subdivisions to a major collector at an estimated cost of $95,000.
No source of funding has been identified for either of these projects.
Councilman Bill Regner, who attended the meeting, said he wanted to make sure that whatever transportation plan is finally adopted by ADOT, it should place a premium on reconnecting the town to itself, something lost when the State Route 89A bypass was built several years ago.
About 20 residents and government officials gathered for the second public meeting hosted by ADOT since it started working on the plan in May. Ideally, the projects suggested in the transportation plan are intended to anticipate the town’s transportation needs for the next 20 years, Kresich said.
Many of the projects identified in the latest draft of the transportation plan were suggested at the first public meeting held Aug. 27, Kresich said. ADOT will continue to review comments and incorporate suggestions until the final plan is adopted sometime before February.
For more information, call (602) 712-8069 or e-mail Bill Pederson, an ADOT spokesman, at bpederson@adot.gov.
