A landmark assessment of infrastructure needs in Arizona was produced by the L. William Seidman Research Institute in May 2008 for the Arizona Investment Council (AIC): "Infrastructure Needs and Funding Alternatives for Arizona: 2008-2032", that addressed infrastructure needs in four categories: energy, telecommunications, transportation, and water and wastewater. The information from the AIC report is a major input to the report that follows. Other types of infrastructure — most notably education, health care, and public safety — also are analyzed here to provide a more complete picture of infrastructure needs in Arizona. The goals of this report are to place Arizona’s infrastructure needs into national and historical contexts, to identify the changing conditions in infrastructure provision that make building Arizona’s infrastructure in the future a more problematic proposition than in the past, and to provide projections of the possible costs of providing infrastructure in Arizona over the next quarter century.

The condition of Arizona’s infrastructure has a direct impact on economic productivity and quality of life. As economic competition expands domestically and globally, and as the knowledge economy evolves, the importance of a strong infrastructure increases. Education, in particular, is of growing importance. Arizona’s infrastructure challenges will require commitment and creativity to meet the needs and potential of 10 million people and to ensure a positive future for the state.

Provides insights on historical and current issues in transportation planning. The first section describes the last five decades of planning efforts, funding initiatives and the increasing use of the roadway system. The second section is a series of fact sheets and maps of each subregion that presents the extent of the roadways, traffic volumes on major streets, transit and bicycle facility availability, future planned improvements, issues within the subregion, an overlay of the draft biological reserve, and in the northwest, a further overlay of pygmy-owl habitat with a detailed analysis of bond projects.

Provides background information relevant to the Circulation Element of the draft Comprehensive Land Use Plan. It describes historic traffic volumes for roads within the various subregional planning areas of Pima County, and compare Pima County trends to national data in areas such as vehicle ownership, travel time, vehicle miles traveled, work trip modes of travel, registration, and vehicle costs.

Wilson & Company recently completed the City of Casa Grande Small Area Transportation Study. The SATS notes that “as the City of Casa Grande increases in size and planning area, the roadway network is also growing to meet the additional travel demands significant improvement measures are needed to meet the travel demand generated by forecast population and employment growth”. Given the findings of the SATS, the City of Casa Grande contracted with TischlerBise to calculate an infrastructure improvement plans and updated development fees for transportation.

Transportation excise tax money is statutorily restricted to street and highway purposes or transportation projects. Gila County demonstrated that it spent excise tax monies during calendar years 2009 through 2013 to address traffic safety and congestion issues and deteriorating road conditions. Also, in January 2014, the County completed the Gila County Transportation Study, which identified the most critical future transportation infrastructure needs and recommended projects to address those needs. We also determined that the County spent its excise tax monies solely for street and highway purposes or transportation projects as required by Arizona Revised Statutes §28-6392(B), and implemented all but one of our prior audit recommendations.