Next phase of Highway 95 lane expansion begins
Highway 95 lane expansion effort marked another milestone
Starting this month, a stretch of U.S. Highway 95 from Rifle Range Road to the Wellton-Mohawk Canal Bridge is being expanded to five lanes, a project scheduled to be completed in February 2024.
On Nov. 3, Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) Commander Col. Patrick McFall participated in a ceremony that kicked off the latest phase of construction on the highway that the Yuma Metropolitan
Planning Organization (YMPO) has identified as having the highest traffic volume of any two-lane road in Arizona. Also at the event was YPG Command Sgt. Maj. Herbert Gill, former YPG Commander Ross Poppenberger, and numerous officials from local city, county, state, and federal government. Among these were Arizona State Representative Tim Dunn, who represents the district that YPG is in, and Yuma City Councilmember Gary Knight, who is also a member of the Arizona State Transportation Board, along with officials from the Department of Defense’s Office of Local
Defense Community Cooperation, the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), and the Federal Highway Administration.
“This is the result of all the great
cooperation we had from federal, state, and local officials with one purpose in mind: the safety of the YPG Family,” said McFall. “Any time a safety project comes to any U.S. military post, I support it.”
Of the roughly $29 million cost of this phase of the construction, $13 million comes from a Department of Defense grant from the Defense Community Infrastructure Pilot Program that intends to enhance military value, installation resilience, and military family quality of life. Successfully applying for the
competitive grant took the cooperation of multiple entities, including YMPO and ADOT.
“It’s amazing what kind of fire can start with a little spark,” said Ross Poppenberger, McFall’s predecessor as YPG Commander, who also attended the ceremony. “It’s the result of our leaders listening to the needs of our workforce and taking action.”
The morning and evening commutes to and from the proving ground have long been dubbed the ‘YPG 500,’ an amusing sobriquet
if not for the grim list of lives the road has claimed over the past decades. The road is shared not only with farm vehicles working the adjacent fields, but also with winter visitors whose presence normally doubles Yuma’s population for half of the year. In his remarks at the event, Dunn recalled attending Poppenberger’s retirement luncheon at YPG at the conclusion of his command.
“One of the guys who tests bombs for a living got up giving him accolades and said the most dangerous part of his job was the commute to and from work every day. That hit me hard, and I took that information back to my Speaker.”
In his remarks, Knight called getting Highway 95 expanded to Aberdeen Road outside of YPG’s Kofa Cantonment Area ‘imperative,’ stating that the project had been his top priority as a member of the Arizona Transportation Board since his appointment in 2018. He outlined not only the safety benefits of doing so, but also the long-term economic benefits to Arizona given Highway 95’s potential as a future CANAMEX corridor.
“It’s really an enormous tribute to collaboration,” said Knight of the expansion effort’s progress to date. “This is what can happen when we all work together, and Yuma is very good at that.”