Uptown traffic is still bad, but city leaders say they intend on fixing it in the next few years.
Brewer Road
Brewer Road will have another connection in the city’s next upcoming projects. Los Abrigados and Sedona City Council have agreed to a shared-cost extension onto Brewer Road via Portal Lane. This will be only an exit turn.
The new plan will cut through the planned Ranger Station Park. The contract can be up to $75,000 each.
“We have the intersection project and then we have the Portal Lane through Tlaquepaque that used to be [planned to] connect to Ranger Road, but now [will be] connected to Brewer Road,” Assistant City Manager Andy Dickey said. “Those are two separate projects. But they do coordinate together.”
The master plan envisioned that this improvement would be a benefit to the northbound State Route 179 congestion but as city staff has had further observation and data collection, they said they recognize this will also have a benefit to southbound connection as well because it will remove those trips from the southbound flow.
“We want to remind folks that the goal here is to create more connectivity, and redistribute trips away from our most congested areas,” City Engineer Bob Welch said. “This particular connection, the real purpose is to reduce the U-turning movements of the Schnebly Hill Road roundabout … this project along with the Portal Lane lot connection to Brewer Road.”
Staff suggested that this connection will encourage drivers as they come out of Portal Lane to go northbound via Ranger Road instead of using Schnebly Hill to turn around, especially with the intersection that will be built at Brewer and Ranger.
Based on the traffic data collection, Public Works staff said that on an average day, 100 vehicles turn right out of Portal Lane within an hour. And with the assumption that half of these cars needed to turn left onto State Route 89A, 50 cars an hour will be using Schnebly Hill roundabout to turn around.
Tlaquepaque owners did not want to shoulder the whole burden of the trips using the connections, and instead, city staff asked Los Abrigados Resort owners to participate in the shared-cost agreement.
Los Abrigados management did not respond via email when asked for a comment.
The Historical Preservation and the Planning & Zoning commissions approved this project previous to the contract being presented.
Forest Road
The Forest Road Extension project has acquired another parcel of land to build the connection from State Route 89A. The project is key in the city’s new parking garage that will house approximately 272 parking spots.
“As part of the agreement, the Loftus family will provide the city with a warranty deed for the needed right-of-way and a temporary construction easement,” city staff reports said.
The Loftus family, who own the 711 Forest Road property, have signed the contract to accept $26,000 from the city for the portion of their property needed for the project.
The second round of bids for road construction are currently in process. Final decisions for the contract will be in the next few months, with the hope that the parking garage will be operational by Summer 2023.
The property title and escrow service with the Loftus family will close with the city no later than Friday, Feb. 25.
