SCOTTSDALE — A husband and his wife, both in their 80s, are dead after they were struck by a pickup truck while crossing a street near their north Scottsdale home.

Scottsdale police spokesman Sgt. Mark Clark says it appears speed was a factor.

Clark says 82-year-old Alfred Tillman and 80-year-old Bernice Tillman were crossing 90th Street just south of Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard when they were struck about 7 a.m. Friday. Both died at the scene.

Clark says the speed limit is 35 mph in the area, but by the length of the skid marks, it appears the Toyota pickup might have been traveling faster.

Police did not immediately release the name of the 39-year-old driver, saying the accident was under investigation.

The state Department of Public Safety has suspended expansion of the statewide photo-enforcement program.

Administrators made the decision in mid-January as a backlash from motorists manifested into legislation to alter or suspend the program.

Plans originally called for DPS to place 100 cameras around the state, with 60 in permanent locations and 40 in mobile vans.

Crews installed 36 fixed cameras and set up 42 mobile units before the suspension.

Lt. James Warriner said the agency had planned to roll out the program in two phases, but administrators put the second phase on hold to analyze locations for the remaining cameras. Warriner said most of the fixed location cameras are in place.

Warriner said the suspension gives the legislation a chance to work through the statehouse, although lawmakers have promised to tackle the state’s budget crisis before addressing other issues.

“Once we feel comfortable with that, we will move forward with Phase 2,” Warriner said. “The original goal was to get them out as quickly as possible, and I think that was kind of part of our problem that we rolled them out too fast, and it didn’t give us enough time to educate the public.”

Cameras snapped motorists nearly 700,000 times on Arizona highways during the program’s first five months, an average of 4,400 times per day. However, only a fraction of those motorists actually received tickets in the mail, and about 50,000 paid the fines.

Arizona has collected $7.5 million from fines, and Redflex, which installed the equipment, will get nearly $900,000.

Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Mesa, said it was prudent to halt the program.

“If we eventually end the program on the highways, it’ll be less for them to disassemble,” he said. “I think there’s a clear majority to end photo radar on the highways because of the unscientific and abusive way that it was implemented: primarily to raise money and not promote safety.”

Gov. Jan Brewer hasn’t taken a position on photo enforcement, other than to say it is “inherently wrong” to use law enforcement to generate revenue.

Warriner said public frustration had nothing to do with the department’s decision. The cameras are producing results in the form of fewer fatalities, he said.

“I think if you go out on the freeway system and travel it at all, you’ve seen a real change in driving behavior,” he said. “Have (the cameras) accomplished what we’re looking for? Absolutely.”

Lawmakers, with the support of former Gov. Janet Napolitano, created the system last year. Similar programs have existed along Phoenix-area streets in the Valley since the late 1980s.

Legislators allotted $20 million for DPS to purchase and install the equipment. Warriner said some of that money remained and was earmarked for use on future photo-enforcement campaigns. Warriner said that some of the remaining cameras could take the form of red-light cameras along two-lane highways such as Arizona 303 in the West Valley.

PHOENIX – Cities and towns in Arizona soon will get their piece of the federal $787 billion economic-stimulus package, but without large populations or lobbyists to campaign in Washington, some smaller municipalities are feeling left out.

Leaders of smaller cities and towns are concerned they’re being bypassed for millions of dollars in federal stimulus grants, and they believe that the money allocated to them won’t be enough to rouse the local economy.

For example, Phoenix was approved for $35.4 million. Litchfield Park west of Phoenix got less than $1 million.

“There is nothing we can spend that money on,” Litchfield Park Mayor Thomas Schoaf said. “I have a problem with that.”

Maricopa County’s regional government directed $104 million in federal stimulus dollars appropriated to the county for transportation projects. The regional council gave each municipality a base sum of $500,000 plus an added percentage based on population.

Schoaf, who also is vice chairman of the council, said using population as a base to distribute stimulus money could fail.

He said many cities and towns will use the funds for smaller projects that don’t fulfill the ultimate goal of the stimulus package — create jobs and jump-start the economy.

“This money should not have been spent on little projects in a jurisdiction that will benefit … only in a few years,” Schoaf said.

Fountain Hills northeast of Phoenix has the same problem.

In a recent trip to the nation’s capital, Fountain Hills Mayor Jay Schlum implored Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl to support towns that do not have the money to compete for extra funds.

Fountain Hills, with a population of just over 26,000, needs new roadways, sidewalks and sewer lines, according to a document prepared by the town.

“Many of the larger cities have lobbyists living in D.C., and towns do not have the resources to put someone on the Hill every day,” Schlum said in a statement. “As a result, I wanted to ask our congressional delegation to be our voice.”

In the document, Fountain Hills officials urged state representatives to make sure other cities “do not receive all the funds just because they have larger populations.”

Buckeye spokesman Bob Bushner said his town, which will benefit from an Interstate 10 project, is pleased with what appears to be instant payoff from the stimulus package

“Right off the top, we’ve seen some positive impact,” he said. “It’s good and refreshing to know.”

President Barack Obama has nominated Arizona’s most recent transportation chief to run the Federal Highway Administration, the White House announced Thursday.

Victor M. Mendez served as director of the Arizona Department of Transportation under Gov. Janet Napolitano until February, when Napolitano was confirmed as U.S. Homeland Security Secretary.

If confirmed, Mendez would oversee the agency responsible for directing federal gas tax money, overseeing major projects on the interstate system and setting highway construction and safety standards.

It is a senior position in the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The White House credited Mendez for having extensive transportation experience and for innovation in funding, technology, infrastructure, research, planning and internal operations.

Mendez has served as a past president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

In 2008 he was selected as Leader of the Year in Public Policy in Transportation by the Arizona Capitol Times.

Previously, Mendez was selected as the deputy state engineer to lead the implementation of the Phoenix area’s multi-billion dollar freeway system.

Mendez earned a master’s degree in business administration from Arizona State University.

He has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso.

LOS ANGELES — Police said Friday they arrested the driver of a car that killed a University of Southern California student and badly injured another in a crosswalk in a weekend hit-and-run near campus.

The driver was a woman, Officer April Harding said, but her identity and other details were not immediately released.

Police planned an afternoon news conference.

Adrianna Bachan, 18, of Santa Barbara, was killed and Marcus Garfinkle, 19, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was seriously injured when a sedan ran a red light and struck them at 3 a.m. Sunday. The car stopped only so a passenger could get out and pull Garfinkle off the hood. He remained hospitalized with two broken legs and other injuries.

Bachan’s mother wept at press conference at USC after announcement of the arrest.

“We finally got one of them, the driver,” Carmen Bachan said.

“Nothing is going to bring my baby back but I do want justice,” she said.

Garfinkle’s mother, Barbara Vriegland, thanked detectives “for finding this person.”

“This was a heinous crime and I, too, want to see justice for our families,” she said.

The women spoke at a news conference held to formally announce that an anonymous couple added $100,000 to the $135,000 in rewards already being offered for information leading to arrests and convictions.

Police Chief William Bratton revealed the additional reward Thursday and that there was a third person in the car.

Police did not immediately say whether the rewards were a factor in the arrest.

Bachan and Garfinkle were returning to their on-campus residences when they were struck.

FLAGSTAFF — Strong winds and low visibility have forced the closure of a 41-mile stretch of Interstate 40 in northern Arizona.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety says it was asked by state transportation officials at midmorning Friday to help close the interstate between Winona, which is just east of Flagstaff, and Winslow.

A good chunk of northern Arizona is under a high wind warning. The National Weather Service says a peak wind gust of 69 mph was recorded at 10 a.m in Winslow.

PHOENIX – The Arizona House on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that could set the stage for construction of toll roads if the measure becomes law.

A bill setting ground rules for the Department of Transportation to enter into so-called “public-private partnerships” on state transportation projects went to the Senate on a House vote of 53-1 with no debate Tuesday.

House Republican leaders’ to-do list for the session includes creation of a “policy framework” for public-private partnerships to build transportation infrastructure. Republican leaders have said the partnerships could – but wouldn’t necessarily – involve toll roads.

Arizona law already permits toll roads but none have been built and the current statutes are considered outdated.

DENVER – A Southwest Airlines flight from Phoenix to Detroit was diverted to Denver after a woman was involved in an altercation with another passenger.

Airline spokesman Chris Mainz says he doesn’t have details on what happened on Flight 1402 Saturday, but he says he does not know of any injuries.

He says the flight was on the ground in Denver about 30 minutes while the woman was removed from the flight and turned over to authorities. The flight then headed to Detroit.

There were 137 people on board.

Denver police could not immediately be reached late Sunday for comment on whether the woman faces charges. Her name wasn’t released.

PHOENIX – Starting in 2013, visitors to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport won’t have to carry bags onto buses to get from light rail trains and the airport’s busiest parking lot to its busiest terminal.

With Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on hand to help shovel, Mayor Phil Gordon and other officials broke ground Thursday on PHX Sky Train, an automated rail line whose first phase will connect METRO light rail and the airport’s East Economy parking lot with Terminal 4.

The plan calls for opening the line in 2020 to the other two terminals and on to car rental facility west of the airport, 4.8 miles in all.

“This is the future. Light rail is the future,” LaHood said. “This is an opportunity to get people out of their cars and into alternative forms of transportation that are comfortable, efficient and on time.”

The PHX Sky Train, which won’t have drivers, will run on rubber tires along a track elevated over areas of the airport with the most traffic congestion. It will connect to the METRO rail line via escalator and an air-conditioned walkway.

The cost of the entire system is projected at $1.1 billion. Gordon said he hopes that the federal government will approve $200 million of stimulus funding that would make it possible to complete the entire system by 2013.

The mayor said the project’s first phase will create an estimated 5,900 jobs, and the stimulus funding would bump up that number significantly.

“For the administration to combine solving the economic crisis that we’re in with the creation of great new jobs, and then at the same time creating assets for the future, you would think that we would have been doing this for the last decade,” Gordon said.

LaHood also presented Gordon with a $10.5 million check made possible by the federal stimulus package that will fund the completion of a taxiway reconstruction project on the airport’s northwest side. The secretary said it’s important to invest in the airport.

“Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is an important gateway to our nation, but more importantly, to this area it is an economic engine for the state and the region,” LaHood said.

He said another $28 million in grants from the stimulus will go toward projects at other Arizona airports, including Tucson International Airport, Sierra Vista Municipal Airport and Kingman Airport and Industrial Park.

“Through the recovery act we are creating jobs here in Arizona and across the country while investing in long-term safety and economic viability of our airports,” LaHood said.

PHOENIX – Arizona is getting $28 million in federal stimulus money to fund airport-construction projects throughout the state.

The Phoenix metropolitan will get $10.5 million of the funds to rehab a Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport taxi-way.

Phoenix officials also unveiled the name of the future automated train that will transport fliers around Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. It will be called PHX Sky Train.

The $10.5 million will fund improvements to Taxiway C on the airport’s northern side. The work includes replacing asphalt with more-durable concrete, as well as installing new pavement marking, lighting and signs.

Automated-train construction began last year at Sky Harbor. Without the stimulus money, the first leg of the system is scheduled carry its first riders in 2013, and would connect light rail, the east economy parking and Terminal 4.

The second half of the project would extend the train to the rest of the airport terminals and the rental-car center in 2020.

With a $200 million federal stimulus grant, the train could connect all three airport terminals, east economy parking and light rail by 2013. The rest of the project would open in 2020.

CLIVE, Iowa — Minutes after Neel Manglik illegally turned right on a red light in the Des Moines suburb of Clive, a video popped up on a computer at an office park outside Scottsdale, Ariz.

The $75 citation arrived in the mail weeks later, making Manglik one of the millions of Americans ticketed as part of a growing industry that is making handsome profits for companies that operate video cameras at busy intersections throughout the nation.

As more cities sign up and others invest their profits into more cameras, those companies expect increased revenue for years to come.

What’s less clear is whether the cameras improve safety. While studies show fewer T-bone crashes at lights with cameras and fewer drivers running red lights, the number of rear-end crashes increases.

Aaron Quinn, spokesman for the Wisconsin-based National Motorists Association, said there are cheaper safety alternatives to red-light cameras, including lengthening yellow-light times.

“We say, the red-light camera wouldn’t have stopped anyone from getting hit,” Quinn said. “Once (a city) sees one city getting it miles away, and that first city makes a bunch of money, they want to do it, too. It’s like a virus.”

Albany, Ore., population 48,000, issued 1,119 traffic camera tickets for $77,200 in 2008. By comparison, in 2006 only 4,000 tickets were issued for all traffic infractions.

In St. Peters, Mo., a city of 55,000, red-light cameras resulted in 3,203 tickets issued from January 2007 to September 2008, and drew a total of $235,973. The city issued 14,836 traffic tickets in fiscal year 2006, but that jumped to 21,745 in 2008, the first full fiscal year with the cameras.

Clive Police Chief Robert Cox said there’s no doubt the cameras are a cheaper option than having an officer on the street.

“With the number of calls for service our city generates, we can’t devote that much time to red-light enforcement,” Cox said. “We were missing a lot of violations.”

But not all cities make money off of the tickets. Contracts between companies and cities can affect how much money the cities get.

In Clive, for instance, the red-light camera program generated $39,548.65 between July 2006 and March 2007, but all of that money went to the camera company because Clive didn’t ticket enough drivers in any single month to make money. Clive has since changed its contract and now gets a percentage of each ticket.

The largest red-light camera company, Redflex Traffic Systems of Scottsdale, operates red-light or speed cameras in 22 states, and added 79 cities last year. It signed a $32 million maintenance contract with Chicago last fall, and in just the last three weeks of last year, Redflex added five new cities.

Redflex saw net, after-tax profits of $10.6 million in fiscal year 2008, up from $7.3 million the year before.

That ticket in Clive shows why: More than half of the $75 fine went to Redflex.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Ashok Manglik, a physician who paid his wife’s ticket. “Why should it go to the camera company? At least 90 percent should go to the city.”

Some cities, such as Orlando and Atlanta, put all the money back into the program so they don’t profit from issuing tickets.

“It was a concern,” said Mike Rhodes, manager of the Orlando’s Code Enforcement Division. “Without casting aspersions on vendors, we didn’t want to be seen as having any incentive to issue these tickets.”

Plenty of people have been getting tickets in Orlando.

The city issued 785 “failure to obey a traffic signal” tickets — their equivalent of a red-light violation — between Sept. 1, 2007, and Dec. 31, 2007. But after the cameras were installed in September 2008, Orlando issued 8,250 tickets through its red-light camera program during that four-month period.

The Clive ticket demonstrates how the system works:

A Redflex camera spotted the violation by Manglik, then sent a video to an employee in Arizona who trained for a week to recognize violations. The employee checked municipal laws and approved the initial violation, and the video was then passed to another Redflex worker, who checked the vehicle against a motor-vehicle database to see if the car and tags match. A third employee approved the final evaluation and alerted an officer in Clive, who made the ticket official.

Clive police approve more than 90 percent of violations passed on by Redflex, excluding obvious mistakes such as ambulances and funeral processions. Redflex encourages cities to use signs and provides them to its customers.

“There’s very few rejected because it’s reviewed three or four times by Redflex,” Clive police Lt. Gary Walker said.

The camera companies, participating cities and nonprofit Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, a group funded by auto insurers, argue that the cameras save lives and ultimately cut costs. They estimate the cameras save about $14 billion annually, largely by reducing emergency-room trips, lowering insurance rates and cutting medical bills.

“I say if you sell fire extinguishers or smoke detectors or bulletproof vests that save police officers’ lives and you can make a buck off this, God bless you,” said Richard A. Retting, a former senior transportation engineer and lead researcher who left the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety in September. “How communities work out the details of those finances is up to them.”

A 2005 study by the Federal Highway Safety Administration found that after installation of red-light cameras, right-angle or T-bone crashes dropped 28 percent, while rear-end crashes climbed 8 percent.

The researchers found that with property damage included, each site saw a $40,000 per year drop in damage.

Retting said there’s no debate that the cameras cut down on red-light running but that their effect on crash severity is less certain.

In Clive, one of the cameras was responsible for giving Richard Tarlton his first ticket in more than 60 years of driving. But the 76-year-old said that as long as the cameras help police become more efficient, he’s all for it.

“If the policemen use their time and do police work, that’s great,” Tarlton said. “If it’s giving them an extra doughnut and coffee break, then I’m not for it.”

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration will try to reinvent a program to allow Mexican trucks full access to U.S. highways.

An 18-month-old pilot program that allowed a few Mexican trucks beyond a border buffer zone died when President Obama signed a sweeping $410 billion government spending bill on Wednesday. The bill barred spending on the pilot program.

A spokeswoman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Debbie Mesloh, said Obama told the office to work with Congress, the Transportation and State departments and Mexican officials to come up with legislation to create “a new trucking project that will meet the legitimate concerns” of Congress and U.S. commitments under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Obama’s nominee for trade representative, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, is awaiting Senate confirmation.

The U.S. prohibits most Mexican trucks from driving more than about 20 miles, or 75 miles in Arizona, beyond the border. The U.S. agreed to lift that ban after signing the 1994 NAFTA deal with Canada and Mexico.

Canadian trucks have no limits on where they can go, but most Mexican trucks can’t travel beyond a buffer zone along the southern border. The limits were imposed after lawmakers voiced safety concerns. But Mexico has long called it an unfair effort to protect U.S. jobs.

The previous pilot program allowed access for up to 500 Mexican trucks from 100 operators. It also allowed the U.S. to conduct inspections and other safety activities.

Under pressure from labor, safety and other groups, Congress cut off spending on the program in 2007. But last year, the Bush administration used a loophole in the law to keep it operating.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., sponsor of the provision in the spending bill that ended the program, wrote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood this month to say he doesn’t oppose Mexican long-haul trucks on U.S. roads, but wants them to be safe.

Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman, cheered the end of the truck program.

“I am pleased that Congress has reclaimed its ability to have some bearing on the obligations contained in the surface transportation provisions of NAFTA and has voted for this step forward for highway safety,” Oberstar said.

The Mexican government has protested the trucks ban, and prohibits U.S. trucks from driving far into Mexico. It could take additional retaliatory steps, such as raising tariffs on U.S. goods.

In a statement after the spending bill passed, the Mexican Embassy said ending the pilot program “is not, and never has been, about the safety of American roads. It is about protectionism plain and simple.”

The embassy said 103 Mexican trucks belonging to 26 carriers participated in the program. Ten U.S. carriers with 61 trucks could ply Mexico’s roads.

Congress prepares to cut off money

WASHINGTON – Congress may force President Obama into a showdown with Mexico over free trade.

Lawmakers are preparing to cut off the money for a 1 1/2-year-old pilot program that opened the way for up to 500 Mexican trucks from 100 operators to drive deeper into the United States.

The U.S. has allowed only a few Mexican trucks to drive beyond a southern border buffer zone, although it agreed when it signed the North American Free Trade Agreement to allow Mexican trucks full access to U.S. roadways beginning in 1995.

If the U.S. doesn’t comply with the NAFTA agreement, Mexico can take retaliatory action such as placing or raising tariffs on U.S. goods.

“If the program is finally defunded by Congress, Mexico will (keep) open all its options, including retaliation,” said Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S.

White House spokesman Benjamin LaBolt declined in an e-mail to comment about the truck program. Tren Nguyen, a spokeswoman for the U.S. trade representative’s office, said the office is examining all possible options, but she would not say what those options are.

For now, Congress isn’t one of the options.

The Senate is considering a $410 billion House-passed spending bill that halts funding for the Mexican truck program. Two years ago, the Senate voted 74-24 to cut off the program’s funding. Voting with the majority at the time were Obama and Joe Biden, now the vice president.

Senate Republicans don’t even plan trying to keep the program alive now that a Democrat is in the White House.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who tried to keep the money flowing in 2007, is not inclined to do so again, an aide said this week.

“It’s very disappointing that my colleagues have chosen protectionism over job creation by eliminating the NAFTA trucking pilot program with Mexico,” Cornyn said.

Money for the program could be slipped into other spending bills, but would again face heavy opposition.

Obama discussed NAFTA with top Mexico officials in a meeting about a week after Obama took office, and Obama said he would work immediately to strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

Since 1982, most Mexican trucks have been confined to driving no farther than 20 miles into the U.S., except in Arizona, where the limit is 75 miles.

The Teamsters, consumer groups and independent insurers have been pressuring Congress to keep the trucks off U.S. roadways, citing safety concerns.

But some of the strongest opposition has come from unions also concerned about U.S. drivers losing jobs and work to lower-paid Mexican drivers.

The Bush administration began the pilot program after a Mexican truck company sued under NAFTA and won. Congress cut funding for the pilot last year. The Bush administration continued it with funding from other parts of the transportation budget.

Bill Adams, a spokesman for the Transportation Department, declined to comment on whether the agency would do the same again.

Inside U.S. Trade, an online publication, quoted Doug DeBruyne, a spokesman for the Transportation Department’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, as saying Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ordered a review of the Mexican trucks program on Feb. 9. As a House member, LaHood also voted to end the program.

The Mexico ambassador said keeping Mexican trucks from U.S. roads will raise the cost of goods for producers and consumers.

“This is protectionism. It has nothing to do with the safety or security of American roads,” Sarukan said.

PHOENIX – Rep. Doug Quelland, R-Phoenix, rides his bike 17 miles to and from the State Capitol each day, and he pedals across whole states during his time off. That experience gives him a unique perspective on the needs of Arizona’s bicycling community, he says.

But neither that perspective nor the cycling garb he wore before a House committee Wednesday could convince lawmakers that bicyclists should be allowed to roll through stop signs if no traffic is coming. Quelland said a similar law in Idaho has created safer roadways for bicyclists.

“Other states have treated their bicyclists much more sanely than we have in Arizona,” he told the House Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee.

Quelland added that it is harder to control a bicycle and avoid a collision if the rider is starting from a stop.

Arizona law requires bicyclists to come to a complete halt at stop signs but doesn’t specify what constitutes a complete stop. Quelland and Rep. Daniel Patterson, D-Tucson, complained that law is applied too harshly in the Tucson area.

“We have cities and counties, at least in southern Arizona, that are using technical stop sign violations as a moneymaker where there’s no safety issue,” Patterson said.

Despite those arguments, members of the panel declined to advance the bill, voting against it 5-3 along party lines.

House Bill 2479 would allow bicyclists to treat stop signs like yield signs. They would have to yield to vehicles but wouldn’t be required to stop if there are no cars approaching an intersection.

At Patterson’s suggestion, the bill was amended to apply only to those at least 16 years old.

Quelland and Patterson said police officers in the Tucson area sometimes write $200 citations to cyclists who don’t completely stop and put both feet on the ground before proceeding through stop signs.

Officials from the Tucson Police Department and the Pima County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.

Democratic Reps. Pat V. Fleming of Sierra Vista and Barbara McGuire of Kearney joined Patterson in supporting the bill. Republican Reps. Jerry Weiers of Glendale, Ray Barnes and Carl Seel of Phoenix, Sam Crump of Anthem and David Gowan of Sierra Vista voted against it.

Barnes said it would send the wrong message for children to see older bicyclists failing to stop at stop signs.

“I am not in a position where I want to set bad examples for kids, and I’m afraid that’s what this is doing,” Barnes said.

Crump said he worried the proposed law would heighten the danger when drivers at stop signs ignore bicyclists who have the right of way.

“It seems like it muddies the situation,” Crump said. “Under existing law, at least you’ve stopped, despite the negligent driver.”

PHOENIX – The state Transportation Board gave the green light Tuesday to using federal stimulus money for highway projects in Maricopa and Pima counties and set the stage for an equal amount of work across the rest of the state.

The board approved Arizona Department of Transportation lists of five projects in Maricopa County, including construction of new lanes on Interstate 10 west of Phoenix and Interstate 17 near Anthem, and of eight projects in Pima County. Those include work on Interstates 10 and 19 and state Route 86 west of Tucson.

The action on ADOT’s lists of recommended projects came after the board reaffirmed an earlier decision to spend half of the state’s $350 million in Maricopa and Pima counties and half in the other 13 counties.

Under that starting point, Maricopa County would be allowed approximately $130 million and Pima County roughly $45 million. Approximately $175 million would be divvied up among projects in the other counties.

Statewide, 55 percent of the total spending would be for construction to add or expand roadways, 29 percent would be for repaving and “preservation” work and 16 percent for rehabilitation and replacement projects.

A 27-project list for the other 13 counties also was endorsed, but board members specifically left the door open to reconsider its project rankings.

If that project list holds up, county-by-county allotments would include $6.6 million for work in Yavapai County, $16.5 million in Cochise County, $30 million in Pinal County, $20 million in Coconino County, $15 million in Mohave County and $11.5 million in Yuma County.

The allocations could change because ADOT officials and board members plan to keep evaluating additional projects in all three regions in the running for possible stimulus funding in case approved projects are dropped or if the state gets more federal dollars.

One federally mandated criteria causing some uncertainty for state officials is a requirement to consider giving priority to “economically depressed areas,” a designation that for now includes every county but Coconino, Maricopa and Pima, said ADOT Director John Halikowski.

“While we understand that Maricopa County is the center of the universe for Arizona, it’s not the center of the universe for rural Arizona,” said Santa Cruz County Supervisor Manuel “Manny” Ruis, one of many local officials who urged the board to leave the 50-50 split unchanged.