A cyclist rides east on Third Street avoding the cracks.

A bond oversight committee has been established to help decide which residential streets the city should spend some of the $15 million available for pavement fixes on.

When city voters passed proposition 409, the $100 million bond for repairing Tucson roads last november, $85 million of it was directed toward arterial roads. The remaining $15 million was earmarked for residential streets.

The bond committee will decide which streets get repaired.

Tucson Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee chair Ian Johnson is serving on the oversight committee and said they are looking for recommendations from the community about which streets they would like to see repaired.

Living Streets Alliance has issued a call to action about the street repairs suggesting bicyclists recommend streets like Third Street, Treat Avenue and Fourth Avenue be prioritized.

LSA suggests that focusing on bicycle arterials like Third Street will benefit more people that just the people who live on the street and would be money better spent.

Here’s a snippet from LSA’s call to action:

There are a lot of “bicycle arterials” in Tucson that serve thousands of cyclists every day in addition to the residents who live along them and people who use them for walking, but at the moment they’re not being considered any differently than any other residential street in Tucson. You can make your suggestions directly by emailing the city and the citizens oversight commission. It may help if you include details on why the street segment you’re interested in seeing repaved deserves special consideration. Consider copying your Ward Councilmember on the email you send – it is always helpful to remind our elected officials how many people bike or walk for transportation and recreation and that we care about improving conditions for all road users.

Send your email here:

streetbonds@tucsonaz.gov

Which residential streets would you like to see repaved?

3 thoughts on “$15 million available for residential street fixes”
  1. Well, yes 3rd Street through Sam Hughes is deplorable as is, to a somewhat lesser extent, 3rd through Miramonte. And Treat. And so many ancient others. So, repave them?
    Perhaps a proper root-cause analysis would reveal that rainwater drainage issues cause many of the potholes and fissures. Those underlying issues lie outside the scope and funding of Prop 409 as it may relate to cyclist-friendly infrastructure. For example, consider 3rd Street between Dodge and Richey. Though most of the potholes in that segment of the bikeway were filled earlier this year, it is starting to revert to moonscape. Drainage is the fundamental issue as 3rd Street, Dodge, and Richey each dump runoff there and the pavement is undermined as the years go by. And 3rd Street is important not only because it leads to the Great Big U, but also because it lies between Speedway, 5th, and Broadway.

  2. I did actually write to my representatives, and while they agree
    that 3rd is a crucial cycle route, there is not enough money in prop 409
    to resurface it.  The condition is too extreme for a simple
    resurfacing–it must be complete rebuilt.
    It’s great to get a response, but prop 409 is not the solution to 3rd.

  3. Red Star I can’t ( and choose to never) get past the lack of on-going maintenance on streets such as 3rd.  The cracks that have become historical landmarks could have been addressed. So what if the fix lasted only 2-3 years? Then do it again. The rough pavement isn’t the worst, but those gaps are inexcusable. The alligator-type surfaces on other residential streets will most likely never get improved, but except for the Tuesday Night Bike Ride, can largely be avoided.

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