2015 Regional Transportation Authority Plan Report

ROADWAY ELEMENTS: COMPLETED PROJECTS RTA Ballot No. 27 Tanque Verde Road

Scope: Widen the existing 2-lane road to a 4-lane facility, with bicycle lanes and sidewalks in both directions. This project complements the RTA’s Houghton Road Corridor project (RTA #32), as well as the

completed Pima County Bond Program project, Catalina Highway, Tanque Verde Road to Houghton Rd.Project Funding: RTA Revenue Allocation $12,833,000 Other Revenues 0 Total Revenues $12,833,000

Construction Schedule: Implementation Period 1 (FY 2006-2011)

Benefits: ImprovetrafficflowandreducecongestiononTanqueVerde. Improve access control for safety.

Provide safer roadway, bicycle paths and sidewalksProject Management:

Pima County Department of Transportation administered the design and construction of this project.

Project ribbon cutting: Nov. 3, 2011Project groundbreaking: May 18, 2010Project Scope and Function:

The RTA plan described the scope of the Tanque Verde Road, Catalina Highway to Houghton Road, project as “Widen the existing 2-lane road to a 4-lane facility, with bicycle lanes and sidewalks in both directions.”

This project began at the eastern approach to the Catalina Highway intersection. The frontage of the commercial projects east of the intersection was reconfiguredtoaddressexistingaccessproblems,andthe project went so far as to rebuild the main driveway access into the shopping center on the north side of the road so the more constrained commercial properties to the south could continue to have a full access driveway.

Tanque Verde Rd. at Catalina Highway

Project #27: Tanque Verde Road

In this area, continuous left turn access had been available prior to the project. Medians now control access along the length of the project.

ThisprojectisoneoffiveRTARoadwayElementprojectswhichterminateimprovementsatHoughtonRoad. Houghton is the easternmost continuous roadway serving the Tucson metropolitan area and, withitsconnectiontoInterstate10,providesasignificantfunctionindistributingintercitytrafficintoeastern portions of the Tucson region.

Tanque Verde Road also is on the continuation of the Grant Road alignment, the largest RTA RoadwayElementproject.EastofHoughton,TanqueVerdechangesitcharacterfromanurbanarterial to rural collector, and ultimately a low volume forest road passing through the Coronado National Forest and on to the San Pedro River Valley.

Budget Performance: The RTA plan estimated the cost of the Tanque Verde Road at $12,833,000 in 2006 when the plan was approved by the voters of Pima County. Actual project costs were substantially lower, largely due to the economic recession of 2008, and its aftereffects, including a highly competitive local construction market.

The construction of the project was awarded to Southern Arizona Paving by the Pima County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 19, 2010. The Southern Arizona Paving bid was the lowest bid of 12 received. The bid award was for $7,109,589.20, which was 31% below the engineer’s estimate. At the time of the bid, construction costs were rapidly falling, and 8 of the 12 bids received were for less than $8 million.

Actualconstructioncostswerelowerstill,withthefinalcostsoftheconstructioncontractapproximately $300,000 below the award amount.

AsummaryofplannedandfinalcoststotheRTAandtheregionisbelow:

Fund Source RTA plan Actual Costs RTA $12,833,000 $10,396,232 Regional 12.6% $0 $ 1,246,323

Utilities $0 $ 731,111 Totals $12,833,000 $12,373,666

RTA funding was approximately 19% below the amount anticipated, This was partially due to the County securing regional 12.6% HURF funding to augment the budget. As noted previously, the bid occurred at a time of great change in construction costs, with a great deal of competition. Only a year earlier, the bidding environment had been much less favorable, with few bidders and bids exceeding the estimates. The County obtained the 12.6% HURF funding based upon the prior bidding environment.

Also of note was the ratio between the cost of design, inspection and administration to the cost of the construction contract. These costs to the RTA exceeded the cost of construction; this ratio was well outside of industry norms, though partially due to the highly competitive bid. In response to this project and several other projects with high “soft costs,” the RTA implemented maximum reimbursement limits for Planning/Design (18% of the estimated construction cost), Construction Administration (13%), Landscaping (4%) and Surveying (2.5%).

The project was completed in the fall of 2011, with a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony held on Nov. 3, 2011. The project construction duration was 18 months and was completed ahead of schedule.

Project Utilization:PimaAssociationofGovernmentsperiodicallycountstrafficthroughouttheregion.CountshavebeenregularlytakenonTanqueVerdebetweenCatalinaHighwayandHoughton.Trafficcountsfrom1998to 2004 increased in response to growth within the Tanque Verde Valley area, peaking at an average dailytrafficrateof15,500(ADT).However,astheareabuiltout,developmentactivitywanedandtrafficvolumesstabilizedwith14,500ADTin2006,justpriortotherecession.

The economic recession of 2008, coupled with drivers choosing to avoid the corridor while under constructionresultedinasignificantreductionintrafficvolumeduringthe2010trafficcount.Trafficdiminished to 10,200 ADT that year. Although the project was completed in 2013 when the next count wastaken,thecombinedimpactsoftheeconomyandroutechoicesstillinfluencedtrafficonTanqueVerde Road, with only 10,400 ADT observed. The most recent count taken, in 2015, showed greater recoveryintrafficvolumes,with13,400ADT,nearingpre-recession,pre-constructiontrafficvolumes.

Benefits to Traffic: The Tanque Verde Road improvements provide additional roadway capacity for vehicular operations, reducing delay on the corridor, access control for improved safety, drainage improvements for reducedmaintenancecostsandfloodcontrol.TheintersectionsignalatHoughtonRoadwasupgraded for better visibility and system reliability.

Multi-modal Transportation Benefits: Multimodal transportation is supported with new sidewalks on both sides of the roadway, improved bike lanes in both directions of travel, turn bays at locations of high turning movement for improved safety.

During project development, the extension of bike lanes along Tanque Verde Road to the east of HoughtonalsowasidentifiedforRTAfunding,andsubsequentlyconstructed.Continuousbikelanesnow extend along Tanque Verde Road to Fennemore Avenue, 2.5 miles east of Houghton. This bike lane extension was implemented separately, but at the same time as construction of the Tanque Verde Road Project occurred.

Other Benefits: In conjunction with the roadway improvements, local utilities upgraded their facilities. These utility improvements included waterline main replacement.

Amenities on the project include public art and low water use landscaping.

Tanque Verde Rd., 2008

Tanque Verde Rd., 2016

Aerial view prior to project construction (2008)

Aerial view of project after construction (2014)