Pinal County is setting its calendar for improving and maintaining roads in unincorporated areas. Now through May 23, it is seeking public comment on the proposed five-year program.
The schedule includes some improvements in Hidden Valley, namely a Ralston Road bridge across Vekol Wash and lots of dust abatement. Projects affecting District 4 on the current fiscal year’s plan have been completed or, in the case of $300,000 dust palliative on Whirly Bird Road between Ralston and Amarillo Valley, are underway.
The plan does not include major projects that are on the county’s Regional Transportation Authority draft list that voters approved in 2018.
Programmed 2020-21, pending approval by county supervisors, are dust palliative projects on Bowlin Road between Hidden Valley Road and Stonebluff Road ($100,000), Louis Johnson Drive between State Route 347 and Amarillo Valley Road ($250,000) and Stonebluff Road between Farrell and Bowlin ($100,000).
A 1.5-mile stretch of Thunderbird Road between Teal and Mayer roads is scheduled for reconstruction that year. The primary purpose is widening the road. The estimated cost is $450,000. That would be funded through a the transportation excise tax.
The Ralston Road crossing is proposed for the 2022-23 fiscal year. It is estimated to cost $1.5 million. It is in the design stage. A source of funding has not been named. The area was particularly hard hit by flooding in recent years.
Also in 2022-23, dust palliative is scheduled for Fresno Road between Warren and Ralston roads. That section is scheduled to be paved the following year.
The 10-member Transportation Advisory Committee approved the draft program in February. These and projects across the county are schedule to go before the Board of Supervisors in June.
The committee is a 10-member panel that is appointed by the Board of Supervisors to annually review, update, and recommend the program of transportation projects. The committee’s recommendation is a culmination of a six-month planning cycle that included three public meetings and the evaluation of 17 transportation project requests.
Transportation Advisory Committee next meets Sept. 22, 2:30 p.m., at the Pinal County Administrative Complex in Florence.