Board OKs Hwy. 95 alternative; Vanderslice work to ease traffic in Mohave Valley

By Darryle Purcell

Special to the River Cities Business Journal

BULLHEAD CITY - Supervisor Tom Sockwell, Dist. 2, brought his plan to accelerate the construction of Vanderslice Road as a north-south route throughout Mohave Valley and into Bullhead City to the Mohave County Board of Supervisors meeting Jan. 22, and the Board passed it unanimously.

“The only present north-south route through the area is Hwy. 95,” Sockwell said. “The traffic is very heavy and the slightest vehicle mishap leads to gridlock. The Arizona Department of Transportation's (ADOT) proposed alternate Highway 95 from I-40 to State Route 68, sometimes referred to as the ‘Bypass,' is still years in the future. We need to get moving on Vanderslice north-south route expansion now and we must also plan it to serve our future population. Our hopes are to get Vanderslice paved through as a two-lane road with the right-of-way to expand it to four lanes in the future. We estimate it will cost $10 million to $11 million to achieve that goal. If we sought four lanes right now, it would cost $30 million and that is probably out of our reach.”

Mohave County began two-lane paving of Vanderslice Road in August of 2006. The schedule is to pave two lanes, two miles at a time. The county put $700,000 in Highway User Revenue Funds (HURF), from gas taxes and license fees, to pave the first two miles of Vanderslice Road from Courtwright Road to Laguna Road. Surface Contracting, Inc., of Glendale, is paving of the first two miles.

“I have been working with Virginia Turner, director of Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano's northwest office, Mike Kondelis, ADOT engineer for the Kingman District, and other Bullhead City, county, state, federal and area-wide officials to set up a meeting for Jan. 30 to further our progress on this proposal,” he said.

Sockwell brought the Vanderslice issue to the Board Jan. 22, to seek county action “to approve staff to develop Request for Qualifications and obtain proposals from qualified engineering firms to perform an alignment study and concept design report to establish Vanderslice Road as a north-south alternative route to State Route 95, and to work with Bullhead City and other stakeholders to develop a plan to expedite and fund the project.”

In a letter to the Board dated Jan. 10, Mohave County Transportation Commission (MCTC) Chairman Jim Roberts wrote, “At the regular meeting of the MCTC on Jan. 9 the subject of Vanderslice Road was discussed at length with the commission voting unanimously to support the ‘Vanderslice Road Improvement Concept Proposal.' It is the MCTC's position that a north-south route, parallel to Hwy. 95 through Mohave Valley and Fort Mohave Mesa to the Bullhead Parkway, is necessary and should be pursued as soon as possible. As you are aware, the paving of Vanderslice from Courtwright to Laguna is in process and this is a start to a project that needs to be accelerated.”

“According to ADOT,” Sockwell said, “right now we have approximately 50,000 vehicles per day traveling on Hwy. 95 in front of Mohave Community College. Also, I found out that the state has graded Hwy. 95's ability to handle its present vehicle load with an ‘F.' Just like school, that's the lowest grade you can get and it stands for ‘failure.' And it's not getting any better.”

As for the alternate Hwy. 95 from I-40 to S.R. 68, Sockwell pointed out that ADOT estimates another three years to complete the environmental impact and engineering study for the route. He said ADOT also foresees five more years after that for full funding.

“The best-case scenario ADOT has is a possible start date in 2015 with another three years to complete the new highway,” he said. “This puts even more importance on the Vanderslice proposal.”

Anyone who agrees the conditions on Hwy. 95 through Mohave Valley and into Bullhead City have become frustrating and wants to make a difference should speak up, Sockwell said. “I met with Virginia Turner and ADOT along with our Mohave County Public Works Department Jan. 15, concerning funding. Although the needed $10 million to $11 million is a lot of money, it is a small fraction of the state HURF dollars. This is going to be an uphill battle to gather the needed funds for this project and the only way we are going to do this is by really putting on the pressure.

“I just e-mailed Congressman Trent Franks' office regarding emergency federal funding for this project and I'm asking residents to talk to their state representatives and anyone else they can think of to convey the importance of this transportation issue.

“One thing I want to stress,” Sockwell said, “is that Vanderslice would still not be a highway. It would be a two-lane community street, with the possible expansion to four lanes in the future, with access to residential and commercial properties. ... In Bullhead City, 95 has really become a major city street. By approximately 2018, we will have a highway connecting I-40 and 68. In the meantime, we still need to be able to get around and the Vanderslice extension and acceleration project will keep us all on the road to a better future.”