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In their opening meeting of September 2023, the Gila County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service-Tonto National Forest that will provide an additional $500,000 to help fund a construction contract for paving Control Road (Forest Service Road 64), east of Payson.
An earlier agreement, which the board approved in September 2022, provided funding of $1.5 million to pave approximately 1 mile of Control Road. The funds were slated for paving and construction only, but this April the board approved a modification to the agreement allowing some of the money to go toward engineering and design.
County Engineer Tom Goodman reported that anticipated construction expenses on the project were higher than first estimated, and the Forest Service will provide the county another $500,000, using Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) monies, to help fund the contract that covers the construction work.
The mile of road to be paved is adjacent to the subdivision of Whispering Pines, and the project aims to reduce dust in the area and improve visibility.
One factor in raising dust around Whispering Pines is the lumber-hauling trucks traveling on Control Road – a main route for transporting timber under the 4FRI initiative, which is designed to restore fire-adapted ecosystems and includes timber harvesting in order to reduce severe wildfire risk.
On a separate road project, the board approved a modification to an agreement with the Forest Service related to paving Forest Service Highway (FSH) 512 north of Young. The modification revised the agreement’s scope of work and extended its term from Sept. 6, 2024, to March 10, 2025.
FHS 512 serves as the primary northern access to Young, connecting the town to State Highway 260. The two-year agreement was signed in September 2022 and provided $472,000 for an environmental assessment update of FSH 512. The environmental assessment for the road’s unpaved portion has not been updated since its approval in 1998; Gila County is performing the update so that paving can take place as funding becomes available.
