The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Wednesday, Jan. 6, to reject all three bids for Verde Connect, ending hopes for the road project after two years of numerous public hearings and environmental assessments.
In December 2018, Yavapai County was awarded a $25 million Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to build a bridge over the Verde River to construct a road connecting State Route 260 with Cornville Road.
The motion to reject the bids also paid the contractors who had put in bids $98,500 each for the cost of developing and submitting bids. The project could be brought back by the board of supervisors in the future, but will remain dead unless they decide to do so.
“The cost to complete the entire project was twice the amount of the $25 million BUILD grant provided, minimally,” District 3 Supervisor Donna Michaels said while introducing the motion to reject the bids. She alleged the county could incur debt of $15 million to $20 million, “which would take away additional funding available in the regional road program, for future roadway needs in the Verde Valley, that exist right now.”
In addition to cost concerns, the road project had been met with opposition from some in the Middle Verde community in Camp Verde, which the road would have passed near.
Michaels expressed a desire to find ways to improve traffic in the Verde Valley and on Cornville Road even without this project, and a commitment to do so in a way that would be less costly and feature input from the communities of the Verde Valley.
“There are many ways to address our infrastructure needs, our health and safety needs, [and] best practices of traffic mitigation,” Michaels said. “I am confident that our communities, in partnership with government and others … can resolve or mitigate our present traffic challenges far more economically, and satisfy our community’s community plans for ourselves and themselves.”
The board had previously voted 3-1 on Nov. 18 to reject the bids for the road. On Dec. 2, the board was set to ratify that vote after a technical glitch made it so some viewers online did not witness it, but the board reversed course with a 3-2 vote. It chose to allow the new board — which had been elected Nov. 3 but had not been seated until Jan. 6 — to decide on the road themselves. The new board axed the project 5-0.
James Gregory, the newly elected supervisor for District 2, which contains the land that the road would have passed through, voted against the road, in accordance with his stated opposition to the project during the campaign.
Gregory did not comment during the meeting, nor respond to request for comment by press time.
