A draft environmental assessment for the Apache Trail/State Route 88 project between the Apache Lake Marina turnoff and the Roosevelt Dam is open for public review and comment from May 21 to June 19.

There is a 151-page study and 202 pages as appendices. The environmental assessment can be obtained from the following website: highways.dot.gov/federal-lands/projects/az/apache-trail.

It was prepared by the Federal Highway Administration’s Central Federal Lands Highway Division in cooperation with Arizona Department of Transportation and Tonto National Forest, according to a release.

It examines the potential environmental impacts of the alternatives being considered for a 11.16-mile section of the Apache Trail within Tonto National Forest in Maricopa County.

The project would extend from mile post 229.2 near the Apache Lake Marina turnoff to MP 240.6 near the Theodore Roosevelt Dam.

Funding for the project is through the Federal Lands Access Program, in conjunction with a local funding match as well as supplemental funding from the Emergency Relief Program.

The project would include:

• standardizing roadway width where possible;
• cutting back slopes to improve line of sight distance;
• applying decomposed granite aggregates to establish roadway crown and drainage paths;
• roadway paving; and
• striping.

The project also includes replacing, repairing, up-sizing, extending and/or cleaning roadway culverts and applying scour treatments at culvert inlet and outlets. In addition, the project includes removing decomposed aggregate berms along roadway margins; general maintenance activities; and installation of erosion control elements, consisting of constructing gabion baskets in existing roadway ditches and placing rip-rap within existing drainage channels, the release states.

To request a compact disc or hard copy of the document, contact Dustin Robbins, project manager, by email at dustin.robbins@dot.gov or call 720-963-3586.

To be considered in the decision-making process, written comments on the analysis and results of the environmental impacts of implementing the proposed action must be received by June 19. Provide any written comments to: Dustin Robbins, project manager, FHWA, 12300 W. Dakota Ave. Lakewood, Colorado 80228 or via email to dustin.robbins@dot.gov.