Never shall the two ends of the Old Tucson Road meet unless some $8.5 million in manna from Washington, D.C., is bestowed upon Santa Cruz County.

A meeting is scheduled tomorrow to get the ball rolling in hopes of obtaining federal funding and to pinpoint an alternative flood-control project for the Chula Vista subdivision.

The demolition of a bridge last year by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers means the street that provides access to hundreds of residents and about a dozen produce warehouses in the area may be forever truncated.

So far, more than $20 million has been spent, including the demolition of the bridge, which essentially brought the project to a halt. It was determined that due to soil stabilization issues the bridge could not be reconstructed within the budget.

Engineers have pegged the cost of two bridges connecting the roadway again at about $8.5 million, an expense the federal government will be hard-pressed to swallow, said Greg Lucero, Santa Cruz County Manager.

He said the idea of bridging Old Tucson Road at the Nogales Wash again must be “tempered with reality.” That reality, Lucero said, is that chances are slim-to-none the $8.5 million will be funded by the federal government anytime soon.

But Supervisor Manuel Ruiz protested, “I choose to look at the glass half-full rather than half-empty,” suggesting lobbying efforts should be launched at the Washington, D.C., level.

Gwen Meyer, project manager for the Corps’ Los Angeles District, said the bridges do not qualify for federal stimulus funding because the cost-benefit does not meet the minimum criteria set by the government. The Corps will not absorb the cost for building the bridges as part of the on-going flood-control project.

It is hoped that by March 16, the county will have selected an option on how to proceed with flood control from six that were presented during a meeting on Jan.27.

One option calls for a 120-foot channel south of the subdivision tapering to 70 feet at the Nogales Wash. It would require the acquisition and demolition of one home in Chula Vista. A second option involved the same “trap channel,” but just 70 feet wide that would not require the demolition of any homes.

That second plan would be less costly. The same configuration was then presented as a third alternative, but added the construction of two bridges to splice Old Tucson Road back together again. It is this option the county is expected to pursue with some modifications, county officials said.

The trap-channel options are being analyzed by the Environmental Research Development Center in Mississippi. No cost estimates have been presented.

In lieu of reconnecting Old Tucson Road, the Corps proposed two new entrances to Chula Vista and neighboring Pete Kitchen trailer park. This proposal also lacked cost information; whether property condemnation was necessary; and it poses challenges during peak travel periods, according to a traffic report by Kimley-Horn and Associates.

Namely, the traffic from the 120 homes in Chula Vista would be routed to East Frontage Road. Most of it would travel north and south from near Soto’s Pete Kitchen Outpost to the intersection at Interstate 19, where the highway converges with the business district route. Already, the intersection is heavily traveled and it lacks traffic lights, presenting safety issues.

These issues may take several years to resolve, particularly the land-acquisition for the roads, county officials said.

In addition, the two options call for the Nogales Suburban Fire Station to be relocated along East Frontage Road to a more accessible site than its current site on the north side of the bridge that was demolished.

The supervisors, which convene as the board of directors of the Flood Control District, is scheduled to select one of the alternatives at a session on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.