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Make Houghton A Parkway, Study Says |
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
After spending a year studying Houghton Road, the Arizona Department of Transportation says the road should become a parkway or freeway by 2030 to handle increasing traffic. The recommendation to transform about 11 miles of Houghton is preliminary, and people will be able to share their opinions at meetings on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1.
Houghton must keep up with rapid development on the Southeast Side, said Laurel Parker, a project manager with ADOT. "If everything gets built as the city proposes, it generates a tremendous amount of traffic," she said. According to ADOT, Houghton should become a parkway or freeway between East Golf Links Road and East Dawn Road - which is two miles south of Interstate 10. Parkways can handle more traffic than typical urban streets because they have fewer intersections. That means there are fewer places where vehicles get backed up while waiting for traffic signals to change. Freeways can carry even more traffic because they pass over or under all intersecting streets - eliminating the need for any traffic signals.
Vice Mayor Shirley Scott, who represents Ward 4 on the Southeast Side, expects people to support the idea of turning Houghton into a parkway because it would help them reach other parts of Tucson more quickly: "People here are eager to have access around the city."
She said a parkway would probably be preferred over a freeway because people want Houghton to remain a scenic corridor.
ADOT's Houghton study has focused on three sections of the road. Here are the recommendations for what needs to be done on each section by 2030:
* East Tanque Verde to East Golf Links roads: Widen Houghton to four lanes and maintain it as a typical urban street.
* Golf Links to Interstate 10: Build a six-lane parkway. If a freeway is desired, it could be four to six lanes wide, depending on traffic levels.
* I-10 to East Sahuarita Road: Continue the parkway or freeway from I-10 south to East Dawn Road. Between Dawn and Sahuarita, widen Houghton to four lanes. Intersection upgrades on Golf Links also were recommended to move traffic faster on that road, which is expected to carry traffic from Houghton to other parts of the city.
According to ADOT, short-term widening projects should be completed on Houghton to handle traffic until the parkway or freeway is built. Michael Tone, who drives on Houghton almost every day and is the president of the Rita Ranch Neighborhood Association, thinks work to build a parkway or a freeway shouldn't be postponed.
"I would rather see them spend the money now, rather than wait 20 or 30 years when costs would just skyrocket."
Tone also thinks Houghton should be upgraded before it's seriously clogged with traffic. "The infrastructure really needs to be there before the growth takes place," he said. ADOT hasn't produced any estimates for how much it would cost to transform the 11 miles of Houghton, but those numbers will be available in March when the study is completed.
Parker said she has heard from many people who are frustrated that ADOT has no immediate plans to overhaul Houghton. "We don't have any money for this project," she said. "Everyone is looking for money."
The city has asked Congress for $30 million to spend on Houghton from funds generated by the federal gasoline tax. If the city doesn't get that money, Scott said the road upgrades will take a long time. She said developers are required to help out by adding extra lanes whenever they build on property that runs along Houghton. That policy has resulted in areas where the road widens, then narrows, then widens again. "It's kind of a weird hodge-podge, but that's what we have now," Scott said.
* Contact reporter Susanna Caņizo at 573-4176 or slcanizo@azstarnet.com.
Copyright Š 2003 Dan Swango and Associates