Another year, another $200,000 spent on patchwork for Ruby Road, a snaking, pockmarked byway south of Arivaca that this column has explored twice before.
That brings the total spent by the county on the road since 2012 to around $560,000, or roughly the estimated cost of chip-sealing the 5.3 miles within county lines, according to new spending data obtained by the Road Runner. That was the treatment it received back in 1997, the last year it saw substantial improvements. A full mill and repave would cost just shy of a $1 million, according to county estimates. Last year was previously the costliest, with patching work coming in at $172,000.
The Government Accountability Office paid a visit to Arivaca in 2017, which was part of a larger look at the roads the U.S. Border Patrol uses for its operations. Precise figures aren’t available, but residents estimate that federal agents account for most of Ruby Road’s scant traffic. That’s why many residents would like to see the feds chip in a bit. County officials interviewed by the GAO said they have to spend an additional $23,000 every year on the road due to Border Patrol use.
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“I think the Border Patrol should make their own road, or pay to maintain this one,†said Sheila Wallen, a member of the Ruby Road Coalition who frequently travels on the road to town, expressing a commonly heard sentiment. “That is the main traffic on the road, that’s what tears it up.â€
Wallen also told the Road Runner that potholes are already starting to poke through last year’s work.
The county transportation department, which is responsible for Ruby Road, is in a bind. As expensive as the work is, not responding to pothole-patching requests could make the county liable for vehicle damage, and spending the full repair amount in a single year on a lightly used rural road while other urban local streets see no attention would likely raise some eyebrows, former transportation director Priscilla Cornelio previously told the Road Runner.
Wallen agreed it was a “quandary.â€
The GAO released its report last fall, and it had some interesting findings and recommendations for addressing situations like Ruby Road, among them the fact that the Border Patrol’s parent agency, Customs and Border Protection, is “statutorily prohibited from maintaining and repairing nonfederal (state, local, county, and city) public roads†without a specific appropriation.
That being said, it does seem there are a few possible ways for the agency to compensate local jurisdictions for road work CBP can’t do itself.
First, it could request a specific appropriation for road-repair work. However, agency officials said that could open CBP up to negligence claims on work it performs. Second, CBP could set up a grant program that could compensate local governments for the repair work they do on roads heavily used by the Border Patrol.
However, action had not been taken on either proposal as of July 2017 because, according to the report, any possible appropriation would likely fall far short of the repair needs on roads the agency uses, and the agency also doesn’t have data on how heavily it uses different public roads.
“Without data on CBP’s use of non-owned roads, determining a maintenance solution that uses an appropriate amount of resources would be challenging,†the report reads.
Nevertheless, the GAO recommended that the agency “should assess the feasibility of options for addressing the maintenance of nonfederal public roads. This should include a review of data needed to determine the extent of its reliance on non-owned roads for border security operations.â€
In its September response, the Department of Homeland Security agreed with the recommendation, and said it will have a strategy that “outlines options and assesses the feasibility for maintaining roads, as appropriate†by September of this year.
Messages seeking comment from ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Sector CBP officials were not returned by deadline.
Despite the report and DHS’ response, Ana Olivares, the new county transportation director, isn’t holding her breath that federal dollars for Ruby Road are on the horizon.
She thinks the most likely outcome is Pima County residents paying for the repair work, possibly through a proposed sales tax. A draft list of projects to be paid for by the tax shows Ruby Road getting a full mill and repave in fiscal year 2028.
DOWN THE ROAD
Several county crack-seal projects will get underway this week. Lane and speed reductions will be in place. Here are the work schedules:
- West Irvington Road, South Mission Road to South Cactus Wren Avenue, Monday through Wednesday, 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Irvington, South Camino de Oeste to South Sunset Boulevard, Wednesday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- West Bopp Road, South Kinney Road to South San Joaquin Road, Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.
