South side of Arizona Avenue open
Arizona Avenue has been reopened to through traffic at the 16th Street intersection on the south side. And the north leg is expected to reopen by Wednesday in time to help move traffic for Black Friday.
DPE Construction, the contractor for the city road project has pushed to get the work completed and Arizona Avenue reopen for the sake of motorists and businesses in the area, said Greg Hyland, city spokesman.
He noted that even with the slight delay in completing the north leg of the street, the project is being finished well ahead of the originally scheduled May 2010 completion date.
An extra push was made to reopen the southern leg by Friday so motorists are no longer sent on a detour around it - and the businesses along that stretch of the road, Hyland said.
With that accomplished, the northern leg should be open by Wednesday, Hyland said.
With the opening of the intersection, motorists will be able to make left turns off Arizona Avenue onto 16th Street, he said.
However, left turns will not be permitted off 16th Street onto Arizona Avenue from either direction, said Lucy Shipp, local spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of transportation. That's to keep traffic moving through the 16th Street construction zone now under way.
A separate project, ADOT in September began work to improve and widen 16th Street to seven lanes from Yuma Palms Regional Center to just east of Arizona Avenue. That project is expected to be completed by late summer of 2010.
With that project underway, traffic is restricted to one lane each direction on 16th Street. There isn't room to "store" vehicles out of the traffic flow while they're waiting for a left turn, Shipp explained.
Therefore, the no left turn restriction from 16th Street will continue at the Arizona Avenue intersection, she said.
Dan Sanders, city traffic engineer, explained to the Yuma City Council during its roundtable last week that a simulation study was conducted of traffic flow through the construction zone.
Improvements for storm water drainage, as part of the construction, will require a large hole in the middle of 16th Street 120 feet east of Arizona Avenue where the ADOT project begins, he said. "That's not enough distance to provide a left turn bay onto Arizona Avenue so allowing left turns would congest traffic."
"Currently, 16th Street traffic is flowing smoothly," he said. "It would take three times the time to move traffic with left turns. That extra time would have to come from somewhere. Cars would be backed up on other streets."
Hyland urged that motorists observe traffic signs and be courteous of other drivers in the construction zone.
"You know the lines will narrow," he said. "Get into line early and don't try to crowd in at the last moment. It just takes one person to really impact traffic."
He added: "Please plan for extra time. It's our busy time and we have the construction, but we want to support businesses in the area."
Improvements to the heavily traveled Arizona Avenue-16th Street intersection included widening it to three travel lanes in each direction on 16th Street and two travel lanes in each direction on Arizona Avenue. In addition, there are now one right-turn lane and two left-turn lanes on each leg of the intersection.
The work also included new traffic signals, replacing older, undersized water lines, storm drain improvements, and new curbs, gutter, sidewalk and landscaping.
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Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853.
