The Regional Transportation Authority is looking into what changes can be made to one of the 35 road projects in its voter-approved plan for 20 years of transportation improvements.
The question came up when Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik proposed scaling back a widening planned for Broadway between Country Club and Euclid.
But the RTA has consistently said it will stick to the widening plans and project descriptions voters approved in 2006.
"The RTA board took a pledge, basically said they would not change the functionality of any project," said Jim DeGrood, RTA's transportation services director. "There's a lot of concern about deviating from that."
DeGrood says the city created the project in 1989 and has already begun buying property to prepare for it. Any change will need to go through the citizen task force for the project, he says.
Each of the 35 road widening projects in the plan has a citizen task force to design the roadway, make decisions about aesthetics and pin down details such as lane widths or whether the bicycle lanes should be separated from motor-vehicle lanes.
Kozachik is proposing the task force make the decision about what the project needs to entail.
DeGrood says first a decision must be made about whether to make changes and what to change. After that, the RTA board will have to look at what kinds of changes state law allows.
The board has asked its lawyer what it can or cannot do with respect to changing elements of the plan, DeGrood says.
By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.