Growing pains: Widening project hits Grant & Alvernon

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — There are no freeways running through Midtown Tucson, making Grant Road one of the most essential arteries in the city.

But the project to widen it — funded by the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) and known as the Grant Road Improvement Project, now in Phases Three and Four — is coming with some growing pains.

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Construction has started at the intersection of Grant and Alvernon Way, where construction equipment and traffic slowdowns will become the norm in the coming weeks and months.

Adding to the commotion: a separate construction crew is working on tearing up and then repaving the parking lot in front of the Walmart Neighborhood Market.

The city’s Department of Transportation & Mobility (DTM) says when the work is done, that section of Grant will be six lanes wide (three in each direction) with landscaped medians and buffered bike lanes, among other improvements.

But ‘curb’ your enthusiasm: from now through March that will mean only one lane in both directions on Grant.

There are no left turns allowed at the intersection from either street through early November, though several cars Monday did not heed the new signs, leading to backed-up lanes of traffic and impatient drivers honking their horns.

Currently, there are two lanes of traffic on both northbound and southbound Alvernon. From early November through March 2025, there will be one southbound travel lane and two northbound travel lanes.

According to Tucson DTM, crews are scheduled to work from about 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Chip Leonn, who saw the project up close when he lived near Grant and Stone Avenue, says it’s not just a headache for drivers.

“The traffic, you don’t know which way it’s going,” he said. “So when you go to cross the street, you’re not really sure. They don’t know where you’re going. So it gets a little confusing.”

Some bus riders who spoke with KGUN did not realize their stop on the east side of Alvernon had been moved a few hundred feet to the north.

The work is not only above ground. Crews are doing underground utility work, including a new storm drain system eight feet in diameter.

The Grant and Alvernon intersection restrictions are scheduled to last until March. The entire project is expected to be complete by the end of 2026.