The bidding period for Sedona’s Uptown Northbound Roadway Improvements Project, part of the Sedona in Motion scheme, closed on Thursday, July 27. The project will affect roughly 1,400 feet along State Route 89A past the “Y” roundabout from L’Auberge Lane up to the start of the Jordan Road roundabout.

“People are in the left turn lane, but at the last second, they will shift over to the right turn line,” Sedona Engineering Supervisor John Hall said of drivers heading northbound, describing them as “weaving at the last second” before the Forest Road intersection.

“A lot of tourists don’t know which lane to be in. This is going to force them to go into a lane with a bit of median between the left turn and the straight-through,” Hall said.

The project will involve upgrades to the street light cabinetry and traffic signal at the intersection of Forest Road and SR 89A without any modification to the traffic movements at the intersection in order to allow the city more precise control over the signal and the flow of traffic.

“The other thing we’re doing is we’re adding safety to that sidewalk [along 89A],” Hall said. “Currently there’s a sidewalk running right along the curb line by the traveled way. We are having that sidewalk turned into a shared-use path which is going to be 10 feet wide. It will diverge away from the road into that steeply-sloped area between the L’Auberge driveway and 89A. We’re going to push it into there, which [is] going to require quite a bit of effort to put [in] a mechanically-stabilized wall to negotiate that steep slope that they have there now.”

“We hope to make it more aesthetically pleasing,” Director of Public Works Kurtis Harris said. “You won’t be on the side of the road, you’ll be off the road below that slope line toward the creek. [We] can bring in a lot of the aesthetics of the creek all the way across to the east of the canyon.”

The new design for the pedestrian pathway will include new interpretive signs to replace the existing signs, which are aging and have been repeatedly vandalized.

“I think what you’ll see there is something a little different,” Sedona Historical Society Executive Director Nate Meyers said. “It’ll [have] some nice graphic design. We haven’t made the decision about exactly what form the panels will take. We’re early on in the discussions about the content, but one of the things I’ve been pushing is Sedona has an unlimited number of amazing stories, and let’s make sure they’re out there.”

The city has not yet disclosed the estimated project cost, and Hall said it does not plan to do so until later in the planning process in order to avoid interfering with the bidding process. The winning contractor will also be required to draft a traffic control plan for the intersection. Public works staff expect to announce the winning contractor on Tuesday, Aug. 22, and hope to complete the project in 160 days during the winter before the beginning of next year’s spring travel season.

City staff will present a SIM update to the city council on Wednesday, Aug. 9, at 2 p.m. covering traffic improvements and traffic modeling after the completion work on the southbound State Route 89A.

“The next big job is the roundabout at Brewer and Ranger [roads],” Hall said. “What’s there now is a three-way stop sign [and] that’s going to be upgraded to a roundabout. The construction will probably get started in late fall of 2024.”