Lake Havasu MPO discusses $17 million RTAC request focusing on intersection studies and highway landscaping

Members of the Lake Havasu Metropolitan Planning Organization Executive Board spent the largest portion of the meeting discussing projects to submit to the Rural Transportation Advocacy Council (RTAC) priority list.

Councilmember Nancy Campbell urged the board to prioritize five state‑highway intersections she described as the most dangerous in Havasu and requested a design/intersection improvement study she estimated would cost about $250,000 to the state. She also proposed a highway‑adjacent landscaping program and extension of the existing purple‑pipe effluent irrigation to reduce discharges to the lake. Campbell said Mr. Reynolds was preparing a full cost estimate for the landscaping and irrigation work.

The chair summarized a strategy to ask for roughly $17 million in RTAC appropriations: fund the intersection study, the landscaping/purple‑pipe work and the remainder for pavement‑preservation projects identified by the city's pavement condition index (PCI). Supervisor Borelli and other board members supported prioritizing intersections and effluent reuse as part of a package that could be easier to explain to legislators.

Board members discussed legislative strategy, including prioritizing items legislators are most likely to support and potentially dividing requests between House and Senate bills. Miss Lajewski noted staff need the city's PCI results by August to compile cost data and finalize project sheets for RTAC submission. The board directed staff to prepare and submit the prioritized project list to RTAC.

Next steps: staff to compile PCI results, complete project sheets and submit a prioritized package to RTAC for the RTAC/legislative process.