The Maricopa Unified School District is preparing a battle plan for six week’s worth of road restrictions resulting from the double-tracking project at John Wayne Parkway and the Union Pacific railroad crossing. The UPRR double-tracking construction project requires that State Route 347 be closed Nov. 21-22 in Maricopa. Traffic from the north will be rerouted onto W. Honeycutt Road just beyond the Maricopa Domestic Water facility, then routed south along the detour over the tracks, continuing to Edwards Avenue and vice-versa for traffic from the south. Once reopened, State Route 347 will remain restricted to one lane both north and south of the crossing for an additional six weeks in order to reconstruct the inner lanes, outer lanes, curb and gutter through the crossing. “We are very concerned about these restrictions and are working with the city and Union Pacific to find some solutions,” said Tom Beckett, MUSD spokesperson. The district has an estimated 300 daily bus crossings at the intersection and if a solution is not found, the district is estimating up to a 20-minute delay in getting students to school. “We have some schools that are underperforming and these kids need to stay on schedule,” Beckett said. To ensure students across the district do not lose valuable learning time, the district is looking at several options. One of these options is staging busses on the north side of the tracks. The district currently houses all of its busses in the bus barn located on the southern side of the tracks, but it is currently constructing a new transportation center on the other side of the rail line. “We have enough pad at the new site to host busses,” Beckett said. Another option the district is looking into involves changing the time at which busses leave the district, resulting in earlier pick up times. “We owe it to the kids and the teachers to ensure we do everything we can to not cut into class time,” Beckett said. While the district has concerns about the traffic restrictions, the largest business on the other side of the tracks is one of little concern. Michael Kintner, marketing director at Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino Resort, said that the casino is not overly concerned about the traffic delays. The Casino runs busses seven days a week across the road in route to transport customers to and from the casino. “It will be a small delay, but once the project is done, the intersection will be a lot smoother,” Kintner said. |