8/8/2005 11:19:00 PM
Road widening argument centers on logic
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Tim Wiederaenders
City Editor
Yavapai County is going to widen Williamson Valley Road to five lanes – two in each direction with a middle turn lane.
District 1 Supervisor Carol Springer, who was unable to comment for this past week’s column because I was using the wrong telephone number, told me on Wednesday the reasoning behind the widening centers largely on logic.
When the county sponsored its public hearings on the subject in 2004 it was planning “two lanes with improvements,” she said.
The county quickly figured out that one of those improvements, which the public wants, would come at a cost.
That improvement is to add turn-in lanes, or acceleration/deceleration lanes, for the intersections – making Williamson Valley Road four lanes wide in those areas.
The problem, she said, is that with so many intersections, many turn-in lanes are necessary and many would be close together or continuous; thus, the cost of the project was no longer two lanes with some additions, but practically four lanes wide for the entire route.
“This would take three to four years to do,” she said, “and then we would have to tear it up again because of growth.”
Since we’re talking logic here … if the county is now looking at five lanes, would it still add turn-in lanes, making the new version seven lanes wide? Springer answered emphatically: “No.”
Seems the extra lane in each direction will allow people to slow down for a turn and other traffic will be able to go around in the other lane. The middle turn lane will keep turns from blocking advancing traffic as well.
The original, two-lane plans (there were two) also did not allow for other amenities, such as much-needed wider shoulders and enough space for equestrian traffic. She said the new plan does those things and more, including underground equestrian crossings.
My only problem with that is if you have not trained your horse to go through a tunnel (say, from birth), good luck getting use out of that “amenity.”
As for Springer questioning the validity of the corridor survey, she agreed that a 31 percent return is exceptional. However, she did not like the fact that the Williamson Valley Corridor Plan Committee included questions about the widening in the survey. It results in “divisive debate,” she said, on a topic that already has seen debate.
Springer added she agrees that the corridor needs law enforcement. This past week I expressed my displeasure with the efforts of the Sheriff’s Office to quell speeding on Williamson Valley Road.
On Monday, I spoke with Sheriff Steve Waugh, who – in regard to the widening – said that “generally speaking, if you have wider roads, speed increases.”
That opens the door for next week’s column. See you then, folks.
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PARTING SHOT – This topic is ever-expanding. Springer said Williamson Valley Road could become a truck route in the distant future and, depending on the Ruskin land trade, we could see the road paved all the way to Seligman, in addition to the need for more paved east-west roadways, such as Road 2 South. Those, too, add up to … another column.
Contact the columnist at twieds@prescottaz.com
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