TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — In Corona de Tucson, situated between Vail and Sahuarita, new housing developments are sprouting up like spring flowers as the area grows quickly.
But that’s not all that’s growing.
After a recent crash shut down Sahuarita Road near Harrison Road, residents in Corona de Tucson area are raising new concerns about traffic safety — and questioning when the county will act.
Catherine Dayhuff, a resident of the Sycamore Canyon neighborhood, has seen traffic surge since moving in just a year ago, particularly at the intersection of Harrison and Sahuarita Roads. “It’s extremely busy,” she said. “The semi truck traffic is really increasing, and just the amount of regular traffic has really gone up.”
She says the intersection can be difficult for visibility, with the problem compounded by speeding vehicles traveling down Sahuarita, which has a speed limit of 50mph. However, she says these limits are rarely observed.
“Sometimes you can’t see if someone else is coming,” she said. “You either have to wait and you’re ticking off people behind you or you take a chance and pull out in front of somebody.”
She mentions another recent accident occurring at the intersection. “There were pieces of car strewn about the side of the road,” she said. “The car was still there when I passed by.”
Earlier this year, Dayhuff reached out to the Pima County Department of Transportation with these concerns.
The Department of Transportation confirmed to Dayhuff that the intersection does meet the criteria for a traffic signal. This conclusion came as a result of a 2023 study of the area.
However, the cost of installation — estimated between $350,000 and $500,000 — is more than the county’s budget can currently accommodate.
“We have about $1.3 million annually for our traffic signal budget,” said Mike Hendrix, Traffic Safety and Studies Manager with the department. “Primarily, this is for maintenance of the existing traffic signals, not for building new ones.”
Hendrix says the county has about 105 traffic signals to maintain, which takes up a majority of each year’s budget.
Due to the enormous cost and budget constraints, Hendrix says new traffic lights are typically only installed for capital investment projects, such as the current Valencia Road improvements. The County is also able to install traffic signals for a developer agreement, such as the Amazon warehouse on South Kolb Road.
The county is now exploring alternative funding sources, including potential state and federal grants, to make improvements at the intersection.
“Once we find funding availability and an allocation, we can look at it in a deeper way to go ahead and get a further study of what type of intersection we need,” Hendrix said.
Hendrix also noted that lower-cost safety measures, such as updated striping or new signage, could be implemented more quickly while long-term solutions are explored.
Further complicating infrastructure planning is the county’s commitment to public art: 1% of capital improvement project funds are set aside to support local art initiatives, a law passed by the Pima County Supervisors in 1990. While this policy doesn’t impact traffic signal funding directly, it has prompted public debate about budget priorities.
Dayhuff, whose home’s walls are covered with paintings, says she enjoys art but doesn’t believe that it should be prioritized over safety. “We don’t have anything against art,” she said. “But I’d rather feel safe on the roads than have something pretty to look at.”
But, Hendrix says the 1% rule only applies to capital investment projects and doesn’t apply to the county’s main budget for traffic safety.
Despite the difficult issues occurring at the intersection, he says he was happy to hear from Dayhuff and other residents about potential improvements to traffic safety.
“We like to say that we have over a million traffic engineers in the city,” he said. “We like to hear from the community if there’s an intersection of concern. We also look and see if an intersection has a number of collisions that we’d like to review closely.”
He says the concerns of Corona de Tucson residents are valid and that the county will continue looking for solutions to make the roads safer.
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Joel Foster is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9 who previously worked as an English teacher in both Boston and the Tucson area. Joel has experience working with web, print and video in the tech, finance, nonprofit and the public sectors. In his off-time, you might catch Joel taking part in Tucson's local comedy scene. Share your story ideas with Joel at joel.foster@kgun9.com, or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram or X.
