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Changes to Wilmot & Pima -East, Silverbell-West

Posted at 5:26 PM, Feb 22, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-22 19:32:07-05
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - Attention drivers.  We have news of some changes for you on Tucson's east and west sides.
      
Tucson is about to start re-working the intersection of Wilmot and Pima to make it easier and safer for drivers to get through; And drivers near Grant and Silverbell will have to get used to some changes in how they move through.
 
Drivers on Tucson’s East Side are probably familiar with the intersection of Pima and Wilmot and not in a happy way.  This can be a tough and tricky intersection to make your turns on and off of those major roads. Now the City of Tucson is about to start work to try to improve things.
        
At Pima and Wilmot, drivers going straight can make it a little tense for drivers turning westbound on Pima.
         
Drivers going from Pima to Wilmot can have a tough transition too.
         
Daniel Siepker lives and works near the intersection.  He says, "It's really a trouble to make that left turn and if you do get to make that left turn, that stop sign right there kind of has people run it constantly.  So it's really, you never know you have to be watching or else you may get hit by someone running the stop sign.  There's lot of pedestrians who cross the street there.  So it's really a good thing that they're re-working the intersection.  I believe it's going to be a lot safer.”
      
The intersection will be re-worked to make turns easier, and get rid of the merge and sudden stop sign that surprised many drivers.
 
You can find more detail on the Wilmot and Pima project here
       
On the west side, at Grant and Silverbell, near a busy Safeway shopping center, that project will be making drivers change some of their habits.  
      
For this week there's no crossing the median from the southernmost way in and out of the center.
     
Once the work is done, drivers going south on Silverbell will be able to make left turns into the shopping center but no left turns going out.
      
Drivers leaving the Big O Tire shop will be allowed left turns only.
 
More information on the Silverbell project can be found here.
 
It is prime construction season right now.  Good weather should last for quite a while.  The city of Tucson is expecting the construction at Pima and Wilmot to be complete in about 60 days.