The Arizona Department of Transportation was authorized in 1996 to administer a State Infrastructure Bank under a cooperative agreement with the Federal Highway Administration. The Highway Expansion and Extension Loan Program (HELP) was established. The financial statements present only the funds comprising the Fund and are not intended to present fairly the financial position or results of operations of the Department.

The HELP program is meant to be a funding tool to accelerate needed highway projects throughout the state. Board Funding Obligations are an important part of the HELP capitalization and the current stress on the State's General Fund has impacted our ability to use BFOs as a funding source for new loans. Though $140 million of BFOs are authorized by statute to capitalize the HELP, the State Treasurer was required to call all outstanding BFOs in April 2009. Consequently, the State Transportation Board and the Department have suspended the HELP program given the uncertainty of a long term funding source.

The purpose of the Verde Valley Multimodal Transportation Study is to develop a long-range regional transportation plan to guide the implementation of transportation improvements on the roads of regional significance in the Verde Valley, including I-17, State Routes, and roads on the County Regional Road System. This Study is an update of the 1999 Verde Valley Transportation Study Update.

This circulation study has developed transportation improvements for all transportation modes including automobile, transit, bicycle, pedestrian, and equestrian transportation. Although bicycle and equestrian travel is not common on the East Reservation, projects were developed to encourage future use of these modes of travel. The plan recommends transportation improvements for 5, 10, and 20 year planning horizons

This study identifies a plan of improvements for vehicular, transit, and nonmotorized transportation and outlines the specific actions necessary to implement and sustain the plan. The recommendations for these elements are based on technical analyses of existing and future conditions as well as stakeholder and public input. The Study identifies projects that establish and improve multimodal options for Nation members. The development of these suggested projects includes consideration of evaluation criteria addressing such issues as safety and connection of multimodal transportation modes throughout the Nation and to the greater region. The Study projects will be included in the Nation’s Long-Range Transportation Plan, which provides the vision for meeting the community’s transportation needs over a 20-year planning horizon.