TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — There could be a jam up in plans to complete the Grant Road widening. The Regional Transportation Authority says there’s no money to pay for the final sections.
On Grant Road near Country Club you see the western edge of phases three and four. The run roughly from Swan to Alvernon. Look around and you see what’s planned as Phase 5 and 6 to widen Grant from Country Club to Campbell but now there’s a question of how they’ll pay for it.
The Grant Road project has been underway for 18 years. It’s intended to provide a fast route east to west without building a crosstown expressway. But now the Regional Transportation Authority says it does not have the 146 million dollars needed to complete phases 5 and 6 and make improvements on North First Avenue.
Those are joint projects with the City of Tucson. RTA says it will need money from outside the funds it gets from the sales tax you pay.
Tucson Transportation Director Sam Credio says it’s too soon to say how it will work out but he expects it to happen before voters vote next year to authorize RTA Next—another twenty years of the Regional Transportation Authority.
“I don't think we have to wait until RTA next has passed only because those decisions have not yet been made about how to fund grant five and six, as well as First Avenue. I believe those conversations are going to occur well ahead of a an RTA next election.”
Credio says Tucsonans will benefit from what’s been done along Grant already, with more lanes, bike lanes and sidewalks but there will be a bottleneck from six lanes down to four if the widening does not happen between Campbell and Country Club.
