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ADOT widens I-10, but will it be enough?
Arizona Public Media ^ | October 1, 2019 | Jake Steinberg

Posted on 10/06/2019 8:27:48 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Interstate 10 is now three lanes both ways between Tucson and Casa Grande, but your commute probably won’t get faster.

The Arizona Department of Transportation projects I-10 could be bumper-to-bumper all the way to Casa Grande during rush hour by 2035. The route currently carries around 60,000 vehicles daily, and that could quadruple depending on the region’s growth, according to an ADOT spokesperson.

John Moffatt, director of economic development for Pima County, said those backups won’t just be bad for commuters. He said they will hurt trade with Mexico.

“Trucks are like water. They find the path of least resistance and that’s what they use. And time is money to those guys,” he said.

ADOT plans to widen the highway all the way to Phoenix, but Moffatt said that won’t alleviate traffic in Tucson. ADOT’s Long Range Travel Plan forecasts that even with the planned widenings, I-10 won’t be able to serve expected travel demand.

Moffatt said he supports the proposed Interstate 11 route that would bypass Tucson to the west through the Avra Valley. The bypass is one segment of a planned direct route from Nogales to Las Vegas. Moffatt said it would allow for greater trade with Mexico while reducing truck traffic on I-10.

The proposed route is controversial. It would run through undeveloped desert close to protected wilderness like Saguaro National Park.

The Tucson City Council came out against the project in June, saying it would have “enormous adverse impacts to economic, environmental, historic, cultural and archaeological resources that could not adequately be mitigated.”

(Excerpt) Read more at azpm.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; Mexico; News/Current Events; US: Arizona; US: Nevada
KEYWORDS: 1localnews; adot; avravalley; casagrande; congestion; construction; development; environment; growth; i10; i11; infrastructure; lasvegas; mexico; nevada; nogales; phoenix; saguaropark; sprawl; trade; traffic; transportation; travel; trucking; tucson

1 posted on 10/06/2019 8:27:48 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: BobL; sphinx; GreenLanternCorps; oldvirginian

PING.


2 posted on 10/06/2019 8:30:43 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Show me the people who own the land, the guns and the money, and I'll show you the people in charge.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Refugees from California?


3 posted on 10/06/2019 8:31:12 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!)
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To: Jim Robinson

Planning on fleeing from Fresno?


4 posted on 10/06/2019 8:33:12 PM PDT by null and void (Convicted spies are shot, traitors are hanged, saboteurs are subject to summary execution...)
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To: Jim Robinson

Or mebbe Mexico.


5 posted on 10/06/2019 8:40:26 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Show me the people who own the land, the guns and the money, and I'll show you the people in charge.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks; Jim Robinson
Plan for the future. Instead of one massive, 20 lane interstate, lets make them 10, two lane interstates. Then the traffic choppers can cover them like a hamster race. 🤣
6 posted on 10/06/2019 8:44:01 PM PDT by Viking2002
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To: Viking2002

Maybe a bullet train? /s


7 posted on 10/06/2019 8:46:05 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!)
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To: Viking2002

LOL!


8 posted on 10/06/2019 8:46:32 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Show me the people who own the land, the guns and the money, and I'll show you the people in charge.)
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To: null and void
No. Everyone is invading Nevada. Your most honorable nullness, may any and all voids never meet the trueness of your most honorable nullness. I remain in a fungal void.
9 posted on 10/06/2019 8:46:56 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: Jim Robinson; Viking2002

10 bullet train routes connecting Nogales to Tucson to Casa Grande to Phoenix to Las Vegas. Would that do?


10 posted on 10/06/2019 8:47:45 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Show me the people who own the land, the guns and the money, and I'll show you the people in charge.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks; Jim Robinson
Well, I was looking at it from the entertainment/interstate commerce angle. We could develop a phone app to allow you to place bets on your favorite while you sit there in the hamster wheel and wait your turn to be set loose up the on-ramp. 😜
11 posted on 10/06/2019 8:55:26 PM PDT by Viking2002
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Bookmark


12 posted on 10/06/2019 8:58:44 PM PDT by Irish Eyes
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
ADOT completed a study and environmental impact statement of a rail corridor between the two cities in 2015, but no funding or construction schedule was ever established.

The study was for a high-speed passenger rail line, much of which would run in the median of I-10. The cost was projected at $6 billion. People in the know have informed me that the final price tag, with expected cost overruns, would run somewhere between $10 and $15 billion.

One state senator, who is no longer in politics, attempted to get Chinese interests to come in and build it on a turnkey basis, but Gov. Ducey said he didn't want the Chinese in here.

A cheaper alternative would be to fix up the Union Pacific line between Phoenix and Tucson for passenger rail, and that would cost between $1.1 and $1.3 billion. Miami's Brightline, now Virgin Trains USA, looked at that alternative but opted instead to build the Las Vegas-to-Victorville project.

Amtrak has asked the mayors of Yuma, Phoenix and Tucson to write to Amtrak requesting three round trips a day between Phoenix and Tucson using the UP line, and one round trip per day between Los Angeles and Tucson via Phoenix. These letters will trigger a four- to five-year feasibility study on Amtrak's part before Amtrak asks the states of California and Arizona to fund it. While California has a mechanism for funding passenger rail, Arizona does not.

Further, bringing the Yuma-Phoenix section of the UP line back into service -- it was taken out of service in 1996 due to a terrorist incident -- would cost $500 million. Nobody has that kind of money.

Barring some new vast federal program for passenger rail, nothing will be done.

13 posted on 10/06/2019 9:11:43 PM PDT by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill & Publius available at Amazon.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
10 bullet train routes connecting Nogales to Tucson to Casa Grande to Phoenix to Las Vegas. Would that do?

We are throwing away too much money on trains in Phoenix already. It only attracts people who don’t drive.
14 posted on 10/06/2019 10:09:37 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana (Sutor, ne ultra crepidam--Appelles of Kos)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

As cities go vertical, interstates cannot.

Plan your future accordingly. Look at foreign nations traffic problems.


15 posted on 10/07/2019 8:47:51 AM PDT by TheNext (Leader of the Happy People of the World)
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