Pima County step closer to approving another wildlife crossing on Interstate 10
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - Pima County took another step in a years-long process to build a wildlife crossing at Interstate 10 near the Avra Valley Road exchange.
The county has hundreds of acres of land along the Santa Cruz River which it purchased or was donated by area developers.
The county wants to redo the spaces to make them more attractive to wildlife, especially wildlife from the nearby Tucson Mountains.
The county wants to connect the Tucson Mountains on the west side with the Totolita Mountains and the Santa Catalina Mountains on the east side.
The only issue: Interstate 10 runs through the middle of it. So the county must decide if the wildlife corridor will go up over the highway or underneath.
The county has an ace in the hole.
There’s an abandoned railroad trestle just a quarter mile South of the Avra Valley intersection which can be repurposed for the corridor, at least temporarily.
“We will monitor the activity of the underpass and hope that it is successful,” said Carmine DeBonis, a Pima County Assistant Administrator.
Wildlife overpasses and underpasses are not new. For years, they have saved countless animals and people who might crash into them.
The Regional Transportation Authority, funded by a half-cent sales tax, helped fund the $9.5 million project over Highway 79 near Catalina in 2015. At the time it was one of the deadliest stretches of state roadway for both people and animals.
“All I can do is attest to my experience as a car dealer and the body shop, knowing what happens to an automobile and passengers when in collision with wildlife,” said Board member Steve Christy. “It can be devastating.”
With that in mind, Pima County voted unanimously Tuesday to amend its Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan to, in part, allow the abandoned trestle to be used as a way to allow animals to traverse the proposed corridor.
“They had to make an exception to the conservation easement so that they could go in there and do work which will be an improvement for wildlife,” said Carolyn Campbell, the Co-Executive Director for the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection. “And they’re also going to be doing vegetation that will be helpful to wildlife.”
The county’s decision does not guarantee that a wildlife corridor will ever be built but with so much support, it may be. It’s been decades already but there is hope it will happen.
“For the last 20 years or more they’ve been putting pieces together, so it seems this is the next natural step,” Campbell said. “Yes, some days I just say ‘wow’, this is really happening and we’re getting close.”
Once a corridor is approved and built, which will likely be the abandoned train trestle, the county will monitor the results to see if it is working.
If so, that will save millions of dollars in taxpayer money.
If not, then consideration will be given to a possibly different plan.
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