Your gift today will protect open spaces, wildlife, and wildlife linkages. 
Do you think we should construct a new interstate in between our treasured Saguaro National Park and Ironwood Forest National Monument?
The Arizona Department of Transportation and the Federal Highways Administration are currently accepting public comments (deadline is this Friday, June 2!) on proposed corridor alternatives for a new interstate between Nogales and Wickenburg. [Want to read the Coalition’s comment letter? Head here.] We are opposed to Corridor Alternatives C & D which go right through Avra Valley…and right next to Saguaro National Park and Ironwood Forest National Monument.
It is well-established that new interstates bring with them new development, new roads, and more traffic. They are not stand-alone pieces of infrastructure. They come with exits, gas stations, frontage roads, and all kinds of new development. They also have negative impacts on viewsheds, natural quiet, dark skies, and other wilderness values.
Avra Valley is a biologically-rich part of our region with significant protected open space, wildlife linkages, and mitigation lands. Avra Valley is located right in between Pima County-owned Tucson Mountain Park and national treasure Saguaro National Park to the east and Ironwood Forest National Monument and the Tohono O’odham Nation to the west. It also contains mitigation lands managed by the Bureau of Reclamation for impacts from the Central Arizona Project canal, open space lands owned by Pima County and the Regional Flood Control District, and the Santa Cruz River. A new interstate through all of these protected lands would be devastating and irreversible.
Will you please submit an official public comment today opposing Corridor Alternatives C & D through Avra Valley?
The public comment period ends this Friday, June 2, 2017.
Comments can be submitted by email to: I-11ADOTStudy@hdrinc.com or at a new dedicated comment website: www.i11comment.com
Verbal comments can be left at this phone number: (844) 544-8049
Comments can also be mailed to:
Interstate 11 Tier 1 EIS Study Team
c/o ADOT Communications
1655 W. Jackson St., Mail Drop 126F
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Need some talking points to get your started on your comments? Feel free to use these and make them your own:
- New interstates bring with them new development, new roads, and more traffic. They are not stand-alone pieces of infrastructure. They come with exits, gas stations, frontage roads, and all kinds of new development. They also have negative impacts on viewsheds, natural quiet, dark skies, and other wilderness values. It is unacceptable to locate a new interstate with this many impacts next to a national park and a national monument.
- Avra Valley is home to a rich mosaic of biologically-important lands, including a national park and a national monument on either side. The proposed Interstate 11 in southern Arizona should use the existing Interstate 10 corridor.
- We need to keep our public lands and wildlife linkages intact. Saguaro National Park is a national treasure that is already becoming increasingly isolated due to development pressure from Tucson and Marana to the east. Constructing a new interstate west of this national park would doom wildlife there forever.
- Should there be a proven need for expanded capacity, making improvements to the existing Interstate 10 corridor is the best alternative to manage increased traffic volumes in southern Arizona. All transportation options also need to be investigated, including an expanded rail corridor between Tucson and Phoenix and multi-modal transportation solutions generally.
Want to read the Coalition’s comment letter? Check it out here and feel free to quote us or use any of the language in our letter to help you with yours!
Thank you for speaking out and using your voice to make a difference!
Questions? Please give us a call at (520) 388-9925 or send us an email at admin@sonorandesert.org.
Tags: avra valley, I-11, Interstate 11, public comments
This letter opposes the Corridor C and D plan though Avra valley.
Using the existing I-10 Corridor is a perfect alternative. This will cost less and not have as much impact on our National park and the entire area around Avra valley.
I speak for everyone in Tucson, who would no doubt agree with this.
We are here for the wild open land that surrounds Tucson, as well as the thousands of visitors that come to enjoy it.
Tucson cannot afford to have an interstate running through the park, by the National Monument and Ironwood Park. Neither can the wildlife.
We have worked so hard to preserve the quiet and solitude of the Tucson area and surroundings. A highway will add as much noise pollution as it will kill off wildlife.
Use what infrastructures are already in place.
Why destroy a community that lives for the beauty of the Sonoran desert?
Thank you
Martha Phinney
Thank you for taking the time to submit your comments last week.
NO FREEWAY IN IRONWOOD OR AVRA VALLEY
No to 11 I agree with Sonoran desert Protection comments entirely
Thank you Kimberly.
Attention: ADOT Communications
Re: Proposed Interstate-11
Our Sonoran Desert and wildlife are key pieces of Tucson’s value and should be respected and conserved. Adding an interstate through Avra Valley and would be detrimental to our treasured public lands and wildlife linkages.
It is far more valuable to keep these areas wild and intact. Thus, improving the existing I-10 corridor is a much better option.
Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Best Regards,
Andra S. Ewton
Thank you for taking the time to comment, we agree that wildlife and wildlife linkages are vital to a healthy Sonoran Desert.
We can’t have endless growth. Climate change is here. We will have water shortages. We need more public transportation not more freeways
A new interstate will bring new developments, new roads, and increased traffic. Interstates dissect habitat and degrade ecosystem function. They have negative impacts on wildlife, and other ecosystem values that are being diminished piecemeal globally by infrastructure projects like these. Please consider locating the interstate across already disturbed landscapes and not next to a national park and a national monument.
We need to preserve our national park and the beautiful view as well all the animals that live in it, we don’t need another freeway
Absolutely no freeway in Avra Valley!!! Give the desert and it’s critters a fighting chance, please!
As a U of A graduate who has lived in Tucson for 10 years, I have seen positive and negative growth options here. The proposed Interstate 11 in southern Arizona should use the existing Interstate 10 corridor.
We need to keep our public lands and wildlife linkages intact. Saguaro National Park is a national treasure that is quickly becoming increasingly isolated by development pressure from Tucson and Marana, and constructing a new interstate west of this national park would doom wildlife there forever.
Should there be a proven need for expanded capacity, upgrading the rail service between Tucson and Phoenix, or making improvements to the existing Interstate 10 corridor is the best alternative to manage increased traffic volumes in southern Arizona. All transportation options also need to be investigated.
Thank you,
Kara
Thank you Kara, we couldn’t agree more.