Highway 90 Repairs AKA The BAD Road in Front of TARGET & FRY’s

Sierra Vista City Councilman Mark Rodriguez was of KWCD 92.3 for the First Watch program. Rodriguez was on City Council for about a year and a half and was reelected for four more years. He was on the air to talk about a topic that everybody that lives in our area is interested in, “It's that road that we that some of us know as state road 90 other otherwise referred to as the road in front of Target and Fry’s.” said Rodriguez. 

When you live in a city that has a road like that, you'd want to talk to your City Council. Unfortunately, the answer is, that's a state road. Highway 90 and 92 is one of the busiest intersections in the county. The road is used every day by a lot of people for a lot of different reasons, it's the it's the only way to get to the hospital. “Our first responders used that whether you're coming from Whestone, anywhere in Sierra Vista, anywhere from the Fry Fire District, you're going to come up that road with your apparatuses and with your big vehicles, or with your medical units with patients in the back, down that bumpy road.” said Rodriguez.  

How does the road get fixed? According to Councilman Rodriguez, last year Senator Gowan was able to lobby some money for the project, at that time it was $10.6 million and that was to fix from industry drive, which is across from Walmart, all the way down to Moson Road past the hospital. That project was supposed happen in April of 2022. They were supposed to get bids for the project by the end of the year and then normally two months after that work would start.  “So, from what I understand during this last House and Senate the bipartisan session, they passed the bill and they got some more money for us. So now the project is going to be bigger. They've gotten $39.2 million in addition to the $10.6 million, as well as a 3.71 million dollars of additional for inflation in case the price of supplies goes up within the time that the road work gets done. Said Rodriguez.  

Now the project is going to go from industry road across from Walmart all the way up to the Border Patrol checkpoint. The Arizona State Transportation Board held a public meeting to discuss the upcoming project with concerns and ideas, and according to Rodriguez, create awareness about the project.  “It’s a good opportunity for a lot of local people if they want to get their voices heard. I hear a lot on social media, Instagram Facebook, about this road.” Said Rodriguez.  

Is there any timeline of when this might begin? "The fourth quarter of this fiscal year is when it's going to go out for bid which is April to June.” Said Rodriguez. That means the earliest they could start work is the fall of this year, best case scenario. 

"Hopefully the priority will be from Industry Drive and out past the hospital. If they're going to do it in phases, that definitely needs to be phase one. We don't need to start at the Border Patrol checkpoint and come down this way, we need to do the opposite way and go up.” finished Rodriguez.