ADOT will close Canoa rest area to trim budget

Travelers between Nogales and Tucson will no longer have a place to shake off driver’s fatigue when the Canoa rest area on Interstate 19 closes this fall.

Due to budget cuts, it may not open until possibly next summer, said officials with the Arizona Department of Transportation.

It’s one of the ripple effects from a $100 million shortfall in the ADOT budget. To plug the gap, the agency is reducing its use of state highway funds by 25 percent, said Linda Ritter, public information officer in Tucson.

ADOT will close 13 highway rest areas and possibly shut down 12 Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) field offices, Ritter said. It will also defer $370 million in highway construction projects, defer maintenance activities, consolidate customer services and reduce staff by 10 percent.

“More than $500 million in transportation funding has been diverted in the past year to address the state’s budget challenges,” said ADOT Director John Halikowski.

“ADOT’s customers pay their own way by using transportation services, but because the state is using transportation funds to pay for other needs, and people are buying less fuel and fewer vehicles, we are simply running out of money,” he said.

Beginning the week of Oct. 19, ADOT will close 13 rest areas and leave five ADOT and more than a dozen non-ADOT operated rest areas along the highway system, according to an ADOT news release. Rest areas impacted are: Bouse Wash, Canoa Ranch, Ehrenberg, Hassayampa, Haviland, Mazatzal, McGuireville, Meteor Crater, Mohawk, Parks, Salt River Canyon, San Simon, and Sacaton. Mazatzal and Salt River Canyon are already closed due to water system problems.

These rest stops will be inaccessible with all services shut down, but ADOT and Department of Public Safety personnel should be present, according to ADOT. Travelers may visit www.azdot.gov/BudgetRoadmap to find services near the closed rest areas.

When ADOT decided which rest stops to close statewide, “we looked at distances to nearby facilities, including truck stops,” Ritter said.

Green Valley is only 10 miles north of the Canoa rest area, Ritter noted. “We are trying to develop a partnership with businesses to offer restrooms to travelers.”

In June 2010, at the end of the fiscal year, ADOT will re-evaluate the closures, Ritter said.

So far, ADOT has not decided which MVD offices it will close, said Lourdes Lerma, spokeswoman for MVD. ADOT will cut Saturday office hours effective Nov. 1, but it won’t affect Nogales. That MVD office does not have Saturday hours. Drivers may use MVD services online at www.ServiceArizona.com

To find a third-party office, visit www.az-mvd.com.

“Drivers will continue to see projects being built across the state because the federal government sends money to Arizona for highway construction,” Halikowski said. “That money is restricted by federal and state laws �- and cannot be used for general operations, such as MVD services.”

Maintenance crews will focus on emergency repairs, snow and ice removal and access for emergency response, according to ADOT, and less on landscaping and graffiti removal.

This is the second year ADOT has had to chop expenses, Ritter said. Last fiscal year, ADOT reduced employee expenses, furloughed employees for one day per pay period, cut highway maintenance, reduced operational costs and eliminated consultants to save about $60 million.