ADOT's $5.7B CIP Budget Cuts Highway Spending to $3.5B
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Friday Volume 4 Issue 37 Issue Date: June 28, 2013 CONNECTING THE LOCAL BUILDING INDUSTRY ADOT’s $5.7B CIP Budget Cuts Highway Spending to $3.5B By Eric Jay Toll for The gavel pounded “approved” on In a time when maintaining the the detailed subscriber-only 2013 Arizona Builder’s a challenging $5.7B ADOT budget. system and meeting growing Capital Project Issue. The subscriber- only 2014 Capital Project Issue will Exchange When you take out $2.6B from economic demands screams for Maricopa and Pima county taxpayers more improvements and projects, be published July 30). This includes and $1.2B for airports, the rest of the agency had to slash more than Maricopa and Pima county taxpayer- Arizona gets a paltry $1.9B for roads. $350M from its projected budget. voted revenue, airport and transit spending—most of which is paid Legislative robbery, improved fuel To put the current five year plan with federal grants. economy, and recession-caused into perspective, last year ADOT revenue declines combined to drain projected that it would spend $5.5B State Spending Drops $2B over 5 capital dollars from the Arizona for highways between fiscal 2013 Years Department of Transportation. and 2017 (AZBEX, July 31, 2012 and The five year capital budget covering fiscal 2014-2018 is a $500M drop from last year. Combine this year’s reduction with cuts last year, and the 2014-2018 budget is $2.2B less than the 5-year plan adopted in 2011. At the same time, the state’s road system cries out for increases maintenance and expanded capacity at an even higher pace as the state starts its post-recession growth. There are capital projects planned for Fiscal 2014 (AZBEX, June 11). ADOT plans call for $400M in statewide projects for the coming year. However, a year earlier, ADOT thought it would spend $774M in 2014 for state highway projects. Separately, Maricopa County has $500M and Pima, $80M, to spend in fiscal 2014, about the same numbers they projected in the fiscal 2013 budget. Continued on page 3 Project Solicitations in this Issue: 31 Design/Consultant 45 Horizontal 20 Commercial 17 Products & Equipment 0 Development Opps 26 Utilities 33 Maintenance 41 Bid Results/Awards The Arizona Builder’s Exchange is a compilation of information gathered from the public domain. Individual articles are protected by their respective copyright. The publication as a whole is copyright protected to the Arizona Builder’s Exchange. To forward or share the information with others outside of your firm is a violation of that copyright, punishable by law. 2 Volume 4, Issue 38 Table of Contents Articles 4 4 $7.8M for Tucson Convention Center Improvements 5 Norville, Rio Nuevo Open Talks on Building Downtown Hotel 6 Homeowners Concerned about Germann Road Plan 7 Casino Foes Lose Another Legal Challenge 8 Controversial Mesa Condo Project Gets 7-0 OK 10 8 Mesa Bond-Election Wish List Takes Shape 9 Avondale Mayor Urges Restoration to Block Grant Funds 10 Geographic Expansion Is Key Focus for CRE Executives 11 ASU Payson Land Sale Moves Project Forward 12 Eloy Awaits Final Decision on Local FTZ 23 12 Prescott Economic Development Group Revs Up Economy 13 Tolleson Budget Will Fund Downtown Face-Lift 13 Pinal Public Works: It Was Like ‘Animal House’ Over There 14 Yavapai-Apache Nation Explores Dev of Detention Center 14 Ft Mohave Tribe Purchases Desert Lakes Golf Course 14 Goodyear, Mesa Subdivisions Move Towards Development 48 15 Payson Schools Need to Expand 15 Elrus Hires First Employees At Eloy Site, Opens Sept. 16 Work on $1.3B Tucson Rosemont Mine Could Begin In Winter 22 West Valley Hospital Projects Take Differing Paths Sections Project Opportunities 16 Classifieds 26 Planning/Design/Inspection/Consultant 17 Local Industry Professionals in the News 30 Horizontal 19 Bid Results & Project Awards 37 Utilities 23 Local Projects Making News 40 Commercial 25 Industry Events 44 Maintenance & Alterations 47 Products & Equipment 48 AZBEX Trending Graph 3 Friday, June 28, 2013 ADOT $5.7B Budget Cuts Highways to $3.5B Meet the Continued from page 1 Team! To compare, there were 28 statewide projects with values over Rebekah Morris - Publisher $10M in 2013. In the Mega Blocks budget for 2014, only 480-709-4190 five highway projects [email protected] valued at more than $10M; four of those are “preservation” projects. Rachel Kettenhofen - Editor Legos ADOT Needs New Funding Formula 480-227-2620 Earlier this year, there [email protected] was a call to find new ways to finance capital projects (AZBEX, March 15), but the Eric Jay Toll - Senior Correspondent plans flailed in a legislature unable to solve critical state Lincoln Logs capital funding requirements. ADOT, and federal, highway funding is based on taxes collected on the number of 602-617-3797 gallons sold rather than a percent of sales revenue. Fuel [email protected] conservation programs and the bad economy combined to reduce the number of gallons purchased, undermining Michele Carey - General Manager revenue growth. The legislature continued its recession- Kinex era raids sweeping highway user trust fund money into the state’s general fund to balance the budget. 480-686-4315 While the legislature breaks arms patting each other on [email protected] the back for not raising taxes, voters in Maricopa and Pima counties raised their own taxes to provide for major Arizona Builders Exchange transportation projects. Even with the locals carrying the 1400 E Indian School Road state financial burden, only four major projects can move Phoenix, AZ 85014 forward in Pima County and 15 in Maricopa County. These projects are a few of highway improvements needed to keep the state’s transportation and transit networks AZBEX News meeting the needs of a growing population. Rural Arizona Suffers the Most AZBEX will not be published on Rural Arizona—including the burgeoning traffic increases in Friday July 5th. Pinal and Yavapai counties—gets few projects as the State Transportation Board focuses on preserving the existing system over the next five years. The Fiscal 2014-2018 Five-Year Transportation Facilities AZBEX - Tip of the Week Construction Program heard hours of public and local government input over the past few months. In an We know that if a project doesn’t get funded, unprecedented public outreach, the board selected the it will not get built. This is why why always option of preservation over new construction. follow the money. If we find it relevant to potential work, we are on it! With the limited budget and strongly competing needs, there was almost no money for needed road projects in rural areas. The state put what little discretionary money Editor’s Picks it had for new construction dollars into rural counties and left Maricopa and Pima on the hooks for most of their own from the Last Issue needed highway projects. Over the next five years, $350M • Statewide Construction Activity Increases was cut from the budget—nearly ten percent of the total— 3.2% and most of those cuts occurred in 2014. • Casa Grande City Council agrees to Read the complete five year plan at ADOT study I-10 interchange as necessary for PhoenixMart Click here to return to Table of Contents 4 Volume 4, Issue 38 $7.8M for Tucson Convention Center Improvements Describing the existing Tucson $7.8M for Tucson Convention Center arena as dreary Convention Center and dingy, the Rio Nuevo board Improvements approved a $7.8M project to revive the ‘70s-era event center. Replacing the seats, adding a video scoreboard and acoustic material, replacing signage and lighting, painting with a new color scheme, and renovating the breezeway, bathrooms and concession stands are all part of the scope of work approved by the board at Monday’s meeting. The $1.7M in new seats won’t change the arena capacity, but they will be more comfortable and have cup holders. No new bathrooms will be added, but the existing ones will get aesthetic upgrades. AZBEX Note: Swaim Associates Ltd Architects designed the renovations. The district has adopted a new procurement code, and it will be a month or two before a solicitation for GC is available. The south wall, now block and conduit, will be covered with acoustic material that will look nicer and improve sound quality. The point is to generate more money at the convention center, which board members said has been “blacklisted” by some event planners. Some of the money will come from bond proceeds and some will come from sales-tax revenue. The city is doing its part, having spent $17.5M on TCC repairs in the past year or so, including work on carpets, sidewalks and escalators, city general-services director Ron Lewis told the board. Read more at AZStarNet Rendering Credits: Rio Nuevo Click here to return to Table of Contents 5 Friday, June 28, 2013 Norville, Rio Nuevo Open Talks on Building Downtown Tucson Hotel By Becky Pallack Downtown property owner Allan Norville is taking The talks mark the latest attempt by Norville to build a another swing at building a new downtown hotel and hotel on his property near the Tucson Convention Center. and Darren exhibition center. DaRonco for the Norville, who owns nearly all the private property Arizona Daily Star The Rio Nuevo board voted unanimously June 24 to open between the TCC and Interstate 10, has been offering negotiations with Norville for the joint development of hotel and exhibition hall proposals since 1995. But none an up-to-250-room hotel and an exhibition hall across has progressed beyond the planning stage. from the Tucson Convention Center, on the west side of Granada Avenue.