Downtown Links is an improvement project that will provide multi-modal 'links' -- via foot, vehicle, transit, and bike -- between Barraza-Aviation Parkway and Interstate 10, Broadway Boulevard and the 4th Avenue shopping district, and Downtown and the neighborhoods to its north.
The project will be a modest, four-lane roadway north of the Union Pacific railroad tracks that will connect Barraza-Aviation Parkway to 22nd Street and I-10, offering an alternate access to Downtown, plus new and safer underpasses, railroad crossings, and sidewalks. The three major benefits of the current alignment concept modification include:
1)
Railroad-related improvements including the elimination of the hazardous at-grade crossing at Sixth Street and Ninth Street plus the creation of a Downtown no-whistle zone.
2)
New roadway drainage system & major reconstruction of the Tucson Arroyo removing parts of Downtown from the 100-year flood plain and eliminating the requirement for flood insurance.
3)
More connections via different modes of transportation: construction of a new bike-pedestrian bridge at Ninth Street; connections to existing bike-pedestrian paths such as the Barraza-Aviation Multi-Use Path; connection to future multi-use paths like the El Paso Greenway project.
Ultimately, the Downtown Links project will result in creating a comprehensive plan for the Downtown corridor that will guide land use and urban design, and hopefully, encourage private capital improvements in the future.
As of spring 2008, the project is in the design phase and is expected to take 18 to 24 months to complete. During the upcoming months the Downtown Links Citizen Advisory Committee will recommend an alignment concept, and stakeholders will be invited to identify and prioritize design and roadway elements such as bike lanes, public art, pedestrian access, median width, landscaping, and green spaces.
The Downtown Links project is part of the long-range Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) plan that was approved by Tucson-area voters in May 2006. All of the projects contained in the Plan will be funded by a half-cent transportation sales tax that went into effect on July 1, 2006. Downtown Links has $76M of RTA funding allocated for construction.