A $2.67 Billion Road Plan Started With One Street

Pavement rehabilitation is a new element in the RTA plan — $177.6 million of it, reserved for arterials and collectors. Irvington on Tucson's east side is the first road to get it, and the work runs into January.

Milling machines went to work on Irvington Road east of Kolb on Monday, August 17, doing the least glamorous job in road building: grinding the worn top layer off an arterial so a fresh one can go down. What makes them worth watching is the account the invoice goes to. This is the first construction project funded by RTA Next, the 20-year regional transportation plan Pima County voters approved in March, and the Regional Transportation Authority describes it as its first pavement rehabilitation project in the agency's history.

$2.67B

Twenty-year value of the RTA Next regional transportation plan

$177.6M

Set aside in the plan for arterial and collector pavement rehabilitation

200+

Lane miles the RTA expects to rehabilitate over the plan's 20 years

31

Roadway corridor projects in the plan, including four freeway interchanges

What Is Happening on Irvington, and When

The corridor being rebuilt is Irvington on the far east side, between Kolb and Houghton roads, and the work is split into two phases with a lane-by-lane schedule published in advance. Phase one covers the stretch between Sierra and Pantano: westbound milling ran August 17 through 19, westbound paving is set for August 26 and 27, and crews then move to the middle lanes and the eastbound lanes in turn. Top-lift paving across all lanes is scheduled for September 28 through October 1, with striping on October 8.

Phase two picks up between Pantano and Kolb in early October and repeats the same lane-by-lane sequence into the new year — westbound milling October 5 through 8, the middle lanes through late November, the eastbound lanes into late December, and final paving across all lanes January 5 through 8, closing with striping on January 14, 2027. That is close to five months of rolling lane restrictions on one of the east side's main east-west connections, a corridor that feeds Civano, Rita Ranch and the Houghton Road corridor.

Repaving Was Not in the Old Plan

The reason a routine repaving job counts as a first has to do with what the money was previously allowed to buy. Under the plan voters approved in 2006, RTA dollars went to widening and extending corridors — new lanes, new interchanges, new connections — and rebuilding a road that already existed was not on the menu. Pavement rehabilitation is listed as a new element in RTA Next, worth roughly $177.6 million over the life of the plan, and the money is reserved for the region's heavily traveled arterial and collector roads rather than residential streets. Over 20 years the authority expects to rehabilitate more than 200 lane miles.

• Phase 1 — Sierra to Pantano (August 17 – October 8, 2026, Milling, then paving, Lane by lane): Westbound lanes first, then the middle lanes, then eastbound. Top-lift paving across all lanes runs September 28 to October 1, with striping on October 8.
• Phase 2 — Pantano to Kolb (October 5, 2026 – January 14, 2027, Carries into the new year, Same lane order): Milling begins the first week of October and the sequence repeats through the fall. Final paving across all lanes is January 5 to 8, with striping on January 14, 2027.
• The element paying for it ($177.6 million, 200+ lane miles, Arterials and collectors only): Pavement rehabilitation is new to the RTA plan. The funding is restricted to the region's most heavily traveled arterial and collector roads, not neighborhood streets.

Where the Rest of the Money Goes

The plan splits into elements. The roadway corridor element is about $1.4 billion and covers 31 corridor improvement projects, four of them freeway interchanges. Transit takes $726 million. Safety, ADA and active transportation take $255 million. Arterial and collector pavement rehabilitation takes $178 million, environmental work $50 million, and administration $42 million — the last of which includes a small business assistance program aimed at storefronts that lose access during construction. Funding comes from a continuation of the same half-cent sales tax first approved in 2006 rather than a new one, so the rate does not change.

Outside the city, the queued corridor work reads like a map of where the metro has been growing. Marana has four projects, including finishing the widening of Tangerine Road between Marana Tech Park Drive and Dove Mountain Boulevard, plus a new Moore Road interchange at Interstate 10 with a grade separation at the railroad tracks. Oro Valley and its surroundings have a $56.27 million rebuild of Lambert Lane from Thornydale Road to Rancho Sonora Drive and a $26.87 million improvement to Shannon Road between Lambert and Tangerine. Sahuarita has two, including $34 million for La Villita Road between Sahuarita Road and Nogales Highway. Also on the list: Thornydale from Cortaro to Tangerine, Silverbell from Camino del Cerro to Ina, First Avenue from Orange Grove to Ina widened to four lanes with bike lanes and sidewalks, and Orange Grove from La Cholla to Oracle.

• Civano
• Rita Ranch
• Vail

Why a Repaving Schedule Is Worth Reading

Most pending changes to a neighborhood are vague — a rezoning under review, a parcel that traded hands, a corridor study. A published milling-and-paving calendar is the opposite: a fixed address, a start date, a finish date, and a list of which lanes close in which week. If you are touring homes off Irvington this fall, that calendar tells you what the drive looks like in November and what it looks like in February, which is a more useful thing to know than a general sense that the area is under construction. It also marks the point where a plan voters argued about for a year stops being a document and starts being asphalt.

Quick reference (August 23, 2026): RTA Next is a 20-year, $2.67 billion regional transportation plan for Pima County, approved by voters on March 10, 2026 as Propositions 418 and 419 — about 61 percent in favor of the plan and about 59 percent in favor of the funding — and adopted by the RTA Board on August 25, 2025. It is funded by a continuation of the existing half-cent sales tax first approved in 2006, at no change to the rate. The RTA and the City of Tucson marked the launch on August 14, 2026. The first project is the rehabilitation of Irvington Road on Tucson's east side, between Kolb and Houghton roads, which began August 17, 2026 and is scheduled to finish with striping on January 14, 2027. Construction schedules shift with weather and materials — confirm current lane closures with the RTA and the City of Tucson before planning around any single date.

Sources

Regional Transportation Authority of Pima County — "RTA, City of Tucson celebrate launch of 2026 RTA Plan and Irvington Road repaving project" — rtamobility.com/get-involved/news/rta-city-of-tucson-celebrate-launch-of-2026-rta-plan-and-irvington-road-repaving-project/ — accessed August 23, 2026

Regional Transportation Authority of Pima County — "RTA Next plan addresses pavement improvements" — rtamobility.com/get-involved/news/rta-next-plan-addresses-pavement-improvements/ — accessed August 23, 2026

KVOA News 4 — "RTA Next construction begins on Irvington Road in Tucson" — kvoa.com/news/local/rta-next-construction-begins-on-irvington-road-in-tucson/article_06d298e2-33e4-41d7-a287-009a898d4979.html — accessed August 23, 2026

TucsonSentinel.com — "RTA launches new 20-year, $2.6B Tucson-area transportation plan" — tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/081626_rta_launch/ — accessed August 23, 2026

Patch — "Major Road Work Brings Months Of Construction To Southeast Tucson" — patch.com/arizona/tucson/major-road-work-brings-months-construction-southeast-tucson — accessed August 23, 2026

Arizona Public Media (AZPM) — "Pima County voters approve Propositions 418 and 419" — news.azpm.org/p/azpmnews/2026/3/10/228828-pima-county-voters-approve-propositions-418-and-419/ — accessed August 23, 2026

Arizona Daily Star / tucson.com — "Pima County voters approve RTA Next plan, sales tax" — tucson.com/news/election/results/article_54c6d181-0c7d-46fb-ae52-5dc72295e8ad.html — accessed August 23, 2026

RTA Next — "No Tax Increase with RTA Next" and "About RTA Next" — rtanext.com/resources/no-tax-increase-with-rta-next/; rtanext.com/what-is-rta-next/ — accessed August 23, 2026

Regional Transportation Authority of Pima County — "RTA Next" — rtamobility.com/who-we-are/rta-next/ — accessed August 23, 2026

TucsonSentinel.com — "If voters OK plan, RTA Next would spend $1.5B on Pima County roads" — tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/012426_rta_roads/ — accessed August 23, 2026

Tucson Local Media / Explorer News — "Oro Valley projects have regional benefits, engineer said" — tucsonlocalmedia.com/explorernews/news/oro-valley-projects-have-regional-benefits-engineer-said/article_c0aa2552-85e0-4832-86a5-993c7c83a51f.html — accessed August 23, 2026

Town of Marana — "RTA Next: Future of Transportation in Marana" — maranaaz.gov/Government/RTA-Next — accessed August 23, 2026

All figures are current as of August 23, 2026; construction schedules, project costs and funding allocations change, so readers should confirm current information before relying on any single figure. This post is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase real estate. Kyle Berglund and Tierra Antigua Realty fully support and comply with the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act.

Topics

• New Development
• RTA Next
• Regional Transportation Authority
• Irvington Road
• Pima County
• Infrastructure
• Southeast Tucson
• Tucson

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