Bridge on list for federal funding

A bridge over the Santa Cruz River at Palo Parado will cost an estimated $9.1 million, said Greg Lucero, Santa Cruz County manager. Where will the county find the funds?

In May, the county got the bridge project listed on the Transportation Improvement Projects (TIP) list of the SouthEastern Arizona Governments Organization (SEAGO).

“Once on the TIP, a project can become eligible for federal funding,” said Sharon Mitchell, SEAGO transportation planner.

The bridge would be the final connection to Interstate 19 on Palo Parado Road, currently a dirt roadway off Pendleton Drive. In early 2008, residents of northeast Rio Rico urged the county to take action to keep the Union Pacific Railroad from closing its rail crossing on the road.

After hearings before the Arizona Corporation Commission, the railroad negotiated a deal with the county to create a public rail crossing at the site. In the agreement, the county agreed to build a bridge over the river within seven years.

In February, the county requested $7.2 million in congressional earmark funds from U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., of District 7, and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., of District 8. Giffords’ office turned down the request because the roadway was not yet “functionally classified” and not on the State Transportation Improvement Projects (STIP) list, Lucero said.

“We only could ask for 80 percent of the total,” Lucero said.

To become “functionally classified,” a road must be designated as a major collector, Mitchell said.

The county had determined that some 1,400 vehicles used the Palo Parado shortcut every day, Lucero said. County staff applied to Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) for the classification.

ADOT forwarded the application to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Mitchell said. A few weeks ago, the FHWA classified Palo Parado Road as a “rural major collector.”

Grijalva is requesting $7,280,000 million to “plan, design, engineer, conduct environmental review, mitigate, and construct the Palo Parado Road and Bridge from an existing interchange on I-19,” according to his Web site. It involves .67 of a mile of asphalt, an 800-foot bridge span, 2,300 feet of bank protection, and a signalized at-grade railroad crossing.

Grijalva “deemed it a high-priority project,” said his press secretary, Natalie Luna. “It doesn’t go into the regular appropriations process.”

The funds would come from a new surface transportation bill that the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is currently crafting, Luna said. It will replace the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, which expires on Sept. 30.

But Grijalva cautioned that a majority of the requests would not be approved for funding.

CPE Consultants of Tucson is conducting an environmental review of the bridge site, Lucero said. The county and CPE must work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has jurisdiction over the river as a navigable waterway.