9/8/2006 4:00:00 AM Area's rapid growth means more roads
Another ribbon of asphalt is in Yavapai County's future.
The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors this week awarded a $125,000 engineering contract to begin work on the Glassford Hill extension.
The project would extend Glassford Hill Road from its intersection with Highway 89A in Prescott Valley to Highway 89 at Outer Loop Road in Chino Valley and from Outer Loop Road to Williamson Valley Road.
County Public Works Director Phil Bourdon said the Central Yavapai Metropolitan Planning Organization's Regional Transportation Study draft recommends a continuous, controlled-access road from Highway 89A to Highway 89. He said initial plans call for a four-lane divided highway.
Yavapai County poses some special challenges in ground transportation.
First of all, the county has a rapidly increasing population that's growing at a rate much faster than the ability of infrastructure to keep up. That means more cars are out and about than the roads are able to handle now.
Secondly, jobs and schools aren't necessarily close to where people can afford to live. A lot of the people who wait tables, work retail counters, build houses and fix cars in Prescott don't live there and thus must commute. So we not only have more cars than roads can handle, we also have a rapidly increasing need for the rapidly increasing numbers of cars to use the roads.
As with other road developments in the area, things will be a whole lot worse if we don't build that extension as soon as possible, but if all trends continue apace, things likely won't be all that much better once we get it.
Reader Comments
Posted: Monday, September 11, 2006
Article comment by:
brandon d alexander
We can afford to build an extension road but we can't even fix Iron Springs Road, which if you have driven down it lately will tear your car in half. Also we still wait to get Gail Gardner Road done it is going on four months now that I haven't even been able to wash my car or get in and out of were i live very easily.
