Downtown Links project update – April 2021
The 10-by-12-foot concrete box culverts installed underneath the new Downtown Links roadway surface will carry water to the Santa Cruz River and remove many downtown neighborhood properties from the floodplain. Downtown Links is one of 35 roadway corridor projects funded in the Regional Transportation Authority’s 20-year regional transportation plan approved … Read more »
RTA status report – March 2021
The RTA status report for March 2021 shows 887 projects have been completed, including 17 major roadway corridor construction projects.
Regional planning underway with CAC
Developing a regional transportation plan is no simple task. The Regional Transportation Authority is carrying out a voter-approved plan for 20 years of transportation infrastructure and transit service improvements. Members of the RTA’s Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) are working on a second RTA plan to identify a slate of projects … Read more »
CAC’s goal: enhance the region’s future
The Regional Transportation Authority’s Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) is tackling challenging questions about regional transportation priorities and will take on that task using the best available information about our future. For example, we know the use of autonomous vehicles is emerging, even if we can’t yet predict the pace of … Read more »
RTA’s tax collections fare well during pandemic
The Regional Transportation Authority’s 20-year plan for transportation improvements in the Pima County region relies on a half-cent excise tax for a significant amount of RTA project funding, but in the year since the COVID-19 pandemic began, consumer shopping habits have changed dramatically to help prevent the spread of the … Read more »
We’re always thinking regionally
The 35 named roadway projects in the Regional Transportation Authority plan are located throughout the metro area, but they have a shared characteristic. The projects have regional significance because they provide access to multiple communities in Pima County. RTA improvements help us get to regional destinations with improved safety, reduced … Read more »
What is the RTA and its role in our region?
The Regional Transportation Authority was established in 2004 by the Arizona Legislature as a political subdivision and independent taxing district. As a political subdivision, the RTA is a public body established to develop a regional transportation plan for voter approval. The current multimodal RTA plan was approved by Pima County … Read more »
Complexities of transportation funding
People may often wonder why one transportation project starts just as an adjacent project is completed. One might ask, why were the two projects not completed at the same time? The answer is not as simple as one might expect. In the world of roads, transit, safety, bicycle and pedestrian … Read more »
How the RTA began
The Regional Transportation Authority, established by the state Legislature in 2004, collects taxes from a special taxing district within Pima County to fund the RTA’s 20-year regional transportation plan. Since voter approval of the RTA’s plan and half-cent tax in 2006 to fund the plan, the RTA has used $1.3 … Read more »
2021 to be a busy year for RTA planning
The citizens’ advisory committee working on the next Regional Transportation Authority plan has hit the ground running in 2021. The committee has a framework for developing a new RTA plan and an initial list of proposed projects. Members will be learning about the scope of the projects and projected needs … Read more »