TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Mary Ann Cleveland Way is a two-lane, two-way road between Houghton and Colossal Cave Road. The road leads to two high schools in the area and several homes.
On Jan. 23, a 16-year-old girl died in a fatal car accident on this road and two separate two-car crashes happened at the same intersection.
KGUN 9's Reyna Preciado went door-to-door in a neighborhood along the road and it didn’t take long to find someone to describe how hard their commutes can be.
Elizabeth Celestine lives along Mary Ann Cleveland Way and her daughters go to school within minutes of the area, but turning to get there can take a while.
“The longest we’ve waited is probably 20 minutes to make a left hand turn,” Celestine said.
But turning isn’t the only problem she has with the road.
“There’s a lot of blind spots, a lot of curves. It’s very narrow. We have to watch behind us because a lot of people aren’t paying attention and they’re speeding. We’ve almost been hit multiple times,” she explained.
Her daughter goes to Cienega High School. She said her anxiety is high when she knows her daughter is on the road.
“Yesterday she was going to school and right here I heard tires squealing. I was checking her location and asking her if she made it to school,” expressed Celestine.
Sabrina Lobato Gonzales has two sons who go to schools in the area. Her home is along the same intersection where three crashes have happened since Monday morning. She doesn’t let one of her sons walk to school because she’s worried for his safety.
“He wants to walk to school. We live less than a mile from the school. But, we have witnessed numerous times people were not paying attention and almost hitting people walking in the crosswalk,” she said.
She believes there are many reasons for the crashes.
“People speed. I’ve seen many people try to pass on that road. And there’s a lot of traffic because there’s two neighborhoods, but it’s also between two high schools,” she said.
Both mothers believe another issue is the amount of new developments in the area.
“There are a ton of new developments going up and they do not take into consideration the amount of traffic that goes back and forth,” said Gonzales.
“This area was not built for this many people to live in,” said Celestine.
Elizabeth Celestine believes change needs to be made to make the road safer.
“I think if they widened the road some, or if they had more stop lights,” she said.
The road is located in both Pima County and the City of Tucson. Owning jurisdictions are responsible for roadway safety improvements.
The City of Tucson declined an interview regarding plans for the road.
One potential funding option for safety improvements is the Regional Transportation Authority, a regional taxing district that collects a half-cent sales tax for its 20-year voter-approved regional transportation plan and is in the process of developing a new plan.
A spokesperson for the RTA said Mary Ann Cleveland Way projects were considered for a named project list to be submitted to the RTA board at an upcoming meeting, but the Mary Ann Cleveland projects were not forwarded on the list. This is subject to change before and after the full draft plan is submitted to the board for review in July 2023 through stakeholder and public feedback.
Projects that are on the list connect to Colossal Cave Road. This includes:
- the expansion and modernization of Colossal Cave Road #1 from the unincorporated Pima County roads on 1-10 to Mary Ann Cleveland Way
- the widening of Colossal Cave Rd from the Tucson city limit to Dawn Drive to a 4-lane divided roadway
- the roadway expansion and modernization of Colossal Cave Road #2 from Mary Ann Cleveland Way to Camino Loma Alta
We'll keep you updated as this story develops.
