Pinal Today

Pinal County officials held a town hall meeting Wednesday to discuss the Sunland Gin Road Project and its progress, which has been delayed due to supply chain issues, as well as the county’s decision to change contractors on the job.

According to a story by Pinal Central, Supervisor Jeffrey McClure, Public Works Deputy Director Joe Ortiz, District Manager Kenneth White and Assistant County Engineer Celeste Garza all attended the meeting at the Arizona City Fire Station. 

During the packed-house session, Ortiz spoke about the delays, which he partly blamed on a state statute requiring the county use a “low bid process” to hire a contractor.

“Sometimes you get what you pay for,” he said. “I hate to sound crude or rude like that, but that is just the system we have to play with. A majority of the time, you have no problems, but occasionally, we do run into issues, and we did with this one.”

Sunland Asphalt has taken over as contractor for the project, and is expected to begin work Sept. 6, according to the story.

“The facts are, yes, the project is still happening and we really feel confident in the contractor that we have on board now,” Ortiz said. “There will be some delays, but it hopefully won’t be months, it’s about six weeks or so.”

Residents were encouraged to speak at the meeting, and some expressed safety concerns about traffic along the now-unpaved road.

“People go through that four-way stop going 30 to 50 miles an hour and run right through the stop sign,” a resident said according to Pinal Central. “You cannot see the stop signs because they are too low. There needs to be some police patrol there.”

The project is expected to be completed by mid-February, the story said.