(upbeat music) - [Lorraine] Improving Arizona's infrastructure, projects already underway, and bumps in the road to future progress.

- So we're running into a position where preserving what we've got is our priority number one.

- [Lorraine] A march led by migrants at the Arizona, Mexico border, the message they're sending to the President.

- I have the dream to, to work, to help my family.

- [Lorraine] And the next frontier in vaccinating Arizonans against COVID-19 reaching those who remain hesitant.

- A lot of these things stem from things that are just frankly, not true.

(suspense-filled music) - Hello and welcome to Arizona 360.

I'm Lorraine Rivera.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Early priorities emerging from the Biden administration include passing a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure spending plan.

The latest report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the nation's infrastructure a C-.

Broken down by state, Arizona received a C overall.

Roads in particular fared worse, scoring a D+.

Advising state government on the needs of transportation is a State Transportation Board.

Ted Maxwell was recently appointed, his district covers Pima County.

Earlier this week, we learned more about the board's priorities for the year.

- Well, the State Transportation Board's responsible for establishing, maintaining, and then modifying the system of the state highway system in the state of Arizona.

Which is obviously extremely important both for the economy, trade and transportation, but also for our quality of life.

I think we're not quite aware of how often we are actually on state highways or state roads.

And the prioritization is always to preserve what we've got, to modernize and then to expand when possible.

And that's going to be the challenge, I think, for the next several years, is the funding for highways has gone down.

The gas tax doesn't bring in as much as it quite used to be.

We're actually above projections for this year because the projections were so low based on the pandemic we've been through.

But it will remain a challenge for the State Highway Board, its transportation board, to manage both the preservation of our national, our state highway system.

But also is there going to be any money for expansion?

'Cause as of right now in the upcoming five-year plan, the state highway funding does not allow for any expansion in that fifth year.

So we're running into a position where preserving what we've got is priority number one.

- You are very new to the board, recently appointed, so what do you do when the funding could be in question?

- Well, it's actually, I haven't even attended my first meeting, so new is an understatement on that.

You know, the funding, it's a matter of balance.

And, what we try to do is, we've currently got over 20, valued at over a $32 billion state highway system and throughout Arizona.

But if we were to not preserve the roads, to keep them in good shape, it would cost 300 billion to replace them.

So it really is one of those ones, we cannot let our roads degrade any further.

Over the last decade they've gone from about a set overall, talking bridges, talking interstates and talking the local roads, have gone from a rating of about 78%, 79% in good condition to less than 50, on almost all those different categories.

And that's not good.

It's not safe.

It's not good for our future.

And so we really have to prioritize those things.

And we have to look at where we can get some funding.

I think there's opportunities right now.

The Federal Government is talking seriously, for the first time, on providing more funding for roads in the highway systems.

And over the last, probably two decades, the Federal Government has just band-aided those with a two or three year extension, occasionally a five-year.

We need a long-term solution.

I think we're gonna get some short term money with the American Jobs Act, but we're hoping that they will address the infrastructure needs for not only the national highway system, but also for the organizations that support, maintain those like the individual state transportation departments.

- You also have experience with the Regional Transportation Authority and that can be complicated because people are concerned about whether or not the process is fair and equitable.

So how do you go about having those decisions about ensuring that the right region is getting the attention it needs?

- Well, it's always a challenge.

Obviously, if we're in the preservation mode, a lot of it is looking at the roads that are in most need and then looking at the roads and the highways, throughout the state, that are going to impact the majority of people.

Sometimes, everybody thinks that means all the money's going towards Maricopa.

But I think what we forget is there's a lot of trade.

There's a lot of traffic, and there's a lot of support from the rural communities into the larger urban areas as well.

And so, those roads are significant and also must make sure that we attend to them.

So it truly is a system.

- Public participation is also in the interest of the board.

What is your pitch to the average driver, taxpayer, who may not realize, that they do have a say?

- That's a great question Lorraine, because I won't say that infrastructure's sexy or interesting or it's tough sometimes.

It's concrete, it's roadways, but it's important.

We travel, citizens travel on roads and highways every day.

And the avenue you have for input into the state highway system is through the Arizona State Transportation Board.

Get on the www.azdot.gov website, take a look at the five-year plan.

Right now, we're having three public hearings over the next three months.

And in June, we'll actually have the approval opportunity for the five-year plan.

And when you look in there you can see very specific.

Where the money is going, what areas are being focused on.

Oracle Road, which I think is a state highway, that's long overdue.

Repair is actually in the plan for 2020 and is about to break ground.

So, that one's going forward.

But the next four years, there's a lot of impact that can have.

You can zoom into the public hearings, but I'd encourage people to either provide written comments or when we get back to meeting in person, show up and testify.

It's a great experience.

It's unique and you kind of see, how the process works personally, if you do that.

- All right, Ted Maxwell, from the Arizona State Transportation Board.

Thank you.

- Thanks Lorraine, I really appreciate the opportunity to share with you.

- It's the home stretch for one of the larger transportation feats for the city of Tucson, the Broadway widening project turned a curve this week when crews began laying asphalt.

Construction began in January of 2020 and if all continues to go as planned, the expansion will close at the end of the year.

Earlier this week, our crew got an update from Michael Graham, the Tucson Transportation spokesman.

- Base paving is the first layer of pavement that goes down.

We use a thicker aggregate or a thicker rock in it to form a stronger base.

And then we'll come back when we do the final lift, which will be the final paving.

We'll do that at the end of the project.

And that's a little bit finer aggregate and more of a smoother ride.

And so, right now we're scheduled to pave through this week and plan on shifting traffic to the North side of the roadway between, roughly, Park and Tucson Boulevard.

- For those of us who are not civil engineers this looks like it has taken far too long but really from what I understand a lot of the work has taken place underground.

- Yes, and so a lot of our capital projects, this is a Regional Transportation Authority project, voter approved back in 2006.

And on our capital projects, RTA widening projects, everything's new from sidewalks to street lights, new ADA ramps, landscape median islands.

But what happens underneath the ground is, we'd make all those infrastructure improvements underground.

So for instance, Broadway West, this project, from Euclid to Country Club, underneath this roadway right here, we have a 90 inch storm drain, basically from Euclid all the way to Country Club.

That takes a lot of time.

And as many people that have driven this project saw those big storm drain pipes.

They understand that those have to go in underground.

- The infrastructure underneath, it was overdue, I mean it needed this- - Oh, absolutely - this system.

- Absolutely.

Yeah, I mean, what we have now in place under this roadway, it will capture a hundred year flood event.

And also it's better for the asphalt because while we live in a desert, we like to have rain and we need rain.

A lot of times storm water can be the enemy to asphalt.

You know, if there's a crack in the asphalt, the water gets in the crack, it undermines the sub-grade.

Boom!

That's when you get potholes.

- [Lorraine] Though the stretch is less than three miles long, it required about a hundred thousand feet of new piping.

- We've put in 19 miles of underground pipe on this section of Broadway.

So it was a lot of work.

It takes a lot of time.

The good news is all that infrastructure was on the North side of the roadway, so the 90 inch storm drain.

The South side is going to go much quicker because we're not putting any of the massive storm drains in there.

Water lines are already tied in.

There'll be a little bit of a sewer connections that we need to do.

So the South side is going to go much, much quicker.

- Okay, you officially launched January 2020.

The plan was to go for 20 months.

Will you hit that target?

- We'll be complete with this project at the end of this year?

- And that's good news.

- Yes, it is good news because, what people are getting, is they're getting a new roadway.

It'll be six lanes.

There's bus pull outs on there.

It's a great project and there was a lot of work that went into this project during the design phase.

And we involved a lot of people.

We had a task force and we involved a lot of the businesses.

It's a very good project.

- Along the way there were some historic homes that were moved.

There were some businesses that had to, to shift, so to speak.

Are you confident after, here we are, a year into the project, that this actually did what it was intended to do for the community and infrastructure?

- Yeah, what people have here, the end product is going to be a much safer facility.

Sidewalks, didn't have sidewalks before.

LED streetlights.

We have HAWK pedestrian crossings going in.

So, it's an improvement.

And it's safety improvement is really what it is.

- Construction of a major transportation hub in Nogales is nearly complete.

State Route 189 links the Mariposa supportive entry to Interstate 19.

It's a $134 million project coming in under budget and ahead of schedule.

And as Jaime Chamberlain from the Greater Nogales, Santa Cruz County Port Authority explains, it's a game changer when it comes to cross-border trade.

- Yes, our 189 project is estimated to help our trucks, commercial trucks cross, anywhere between seven and nine minutes faster.

And when you figure that on a big day of volume, we cross anywhere from 1800 to 19... sometimes 2000 trucks a day through our port of entry.

It makes a big difference.

A couple of minutes, a couple of seconds, makes a big difference in delivery times and also, in the volume that you're crossing on a daily basis.

- When you talk about those minutes that matter, you're also referring to the quality of produce, for example.

- Sure, you know, we're working with a perishable product.

It's extremely important that we get our products in on time.

We have deadlines that we have to meet.

We have contractual commitments that we have with chain stores and food service companies all over North America.

So, time is very critical for us.

- Has the pandemic, at all, affected the kind of work that you're involved with, when you are bringing products across the border?

- We're designated essential workers.

So the majority of us, as far as the distributors in town, we all stayed open.

Like I said, we have commitments all over the country with our customer base and chain stores, in order to get food all over North America.

So, we stayed open.

We did some mitigation, as far as concerned with COVID.

We closed our buildings to people who were not employees.

They couldn't come in any longer.

We just had our essential employees in, but we didn't stop serving our customers during this whole time.

In fact, we helped quite a bit of people that were in food deserts all over the country with products that they were not able to get at their chain stores.

- It's estimated that something like 350,000 trucks will pass through that Nogales corridor every single year.

Can you tell me if you think this is a game changer when it comes to infrastructure and transportation as you look to the years ahead?

- The 365,000 trucks that crossed last year, was a record breaking year.

And we are working consistently on a daily basis to increase that as well.

Our next goal is 400,000 trucks a year and we believe that we can do that with the partnership that we have with CBP.

And obviously, our infrastructure is extremely important, not only for the impact of trade immediately.

But, the SR 189 project started in about the fourth, the first week of March and the shutdowns, so the rest of the state and restaurants and things like that, were at the end of March.

The construction tax dollars that have been generated throughout this whole construction project have been absolutely incredible help to the city of Nogales, with our sales tax generation.

Because of the travel restrictions that we've had at the border, we've seen limited crossings of people from Hispanics coming into the state of Arizona to spend their money either here on our border, in Nogales, Arizona or along in Tucson or Phoenix as well.

So, the construction project has really, really helped the city and the county coffers during a very difficult time.

- And as you've said before, what happens in this region impacts the rest of the country not just for economics, but also for food and products across the country.

- Right.

We always say we're a very small community of 22,000 people in Nogales, Arizona but almost $30 billion worth of cross border trade is done here on a yearly basis.

And, there's entrepreneurs like myself and many other stakeholders that are working toward increasing that every single day.

And we believe in what we do in this community is important for the rest of our country.

Not only for food and produce but also for twin plants and products that cross every single day through this port of entry.

- Okay, Jaime Chamberlain, President of Chamberlain Distributing in Nogales.

Thank you.

- Thank you very much, Lorraine.

(marchers protesting) (serious piano music) - Our next story also takes place in Nogales, where across the border in Sonora, migrant families seeking asylum are closely watching the Biden administration's next steps on immigration.

Many of them and their supporters marched recently to amplify their concerns.

Tony Paniagua was there and has this report.

- [Tony] On a recent Friday morning in Nogales, Sonora while most people went about their normal business, (noisy traffic) others were raising awareness about a process, they say, is drawn out and has them fearing for their lives.

(marchers clapping) 42 Year old Esmeralda is one of them.

She's from the state of Guerrero on Mexico's Southern Pacific coast, which she fled more than a year ago.

Currently, the US Department recommends Americans do not travel to the state because of what it describes as widespread crime and violence.

It's why Esmeralda traveled hundreds of miles to the border to seek political asylum.

The process can take years.

(speaking Spanish) - [Translator] Guerrero is a state that has become very violent.

It is beautiful and used to be my home but now it's corrupt and very dangerous.

If you want to work, the mafia asks you to pay a fee.

If you refuse, you're taking matters into your own hands or risking your own family.

Crime, kidnappings, murder, it's all there.

(marchers chanting) I am not the only one.

There are many stories like mine.

I have waited for more than a year and a half and still don't know if I'll be granted asylum.

(marchers chanting) - [Tony] Esmeralda and others have held occasional marches since August of last year, when Donald Trump was President.

Now their focus has turned to President Biden, who promised immigration reform.

Marches like this one on his 100th day in office are about holding him to his word.

Like Esmeralda, Karla is also from the state of Guerrero and has lived in a binational immigration limbo for months.

(speaking Spanish) - [Translator] They say we have to wait.

They're using the pandemic as a pretext, but nothing is changing for us.

I asked for asylum 16 months ago and it is just devastating to still be here.

- [Tony] Karla's two teenage sons were born in the United States after she entered the country illegally in the early 2000's.

When her mother died in Mexico, 13 years ago, Karla returned to the state of Guerrero with her family.

She was working and doing well, she says, intending to stay there but then the violence began.

(speaking Spanish) - [Translator] Unfortunately in the state where I come from young people in their age group are taken to form criminal groups.

I'm trying to protect them.

They could live in the US but I can't bear the thought of them alone without my husband and me.

- [Tony] Alex is 16 years old and is attending classes online.

What would you like to do in Texas, in the United States?

What is your dream as a young person?

- Well, I have the dream to, to work, to help my family live together inside country.

See my brother and grow up there.

(marchers chanting) - [Tony] Jose is 21 years old and he's seeking asylum with his 18 year old wife.

They are from the Mexican State of Michoacan.

It shares a border with Guerrero and faces similar problems.

(speaking Spanish) - [Translator] I'd like to tell President Joe Biden that we are leaving because we have to since things have gotten so dangerous.

It's devastating over there.

There are ghost towns because hundreds, maybe thousands of families have fled.

I think political asylum is our only way forward.

We simply can't return.

(migrants clapping) - [Tony] Many of the migrants have received assistance from groups like the Kino Border Initiative or the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.

Both want the US to reduce its backlog of claims.

Alex Miller is a lawyer with the Florence Project's Border Action Team.

She joined migrant protesters across the fence in Nogales, Arizona.

- We are seeing small changes and policies, small openings and opportunities for folks to have access to safety.

But not everyone on the other side of the border, has access to legal services.

And my team is only five people.

So when you think of the hundreds, if not, thousands of people who have been waiting, since March 2020, we're only getting at the tip of the iceberg.

- [Tony] Tracy Horan has worked for the Kino Border Initiative in Nogales, Mexico, for a couple of years.

- Crime has increased here, I talk to migrants every day who have been threatened, who have been kidnapped or have had attempted kidnappings on them.

- [Tony] Kino Border Initiative's executive director, Joanna Williams has also seen the emotional stress that some families are experiencing.

- I remember a dad crying to me last week, he said, "What am I going to do with my kids?

What am I going to tell my kids?

We have just one small room that we're all piled into.

And I don't know if I'm going to be able to go back and feed my family."

- [Tony] For Esmeralda, one of the many migrants in Nogales, Mexico, who was waiting to hear about her asylum case, standing at the international boundary is bittersweet.

(speaking Spanish) - [Translator] It's just a wall that separates us, yet we are finding it very difficult to get across.

I look there and I see peace, very desirable, peace.

I am not losing my hope nor my faith.

And if I am granted political asylum I will continue fighting for other people.

We have to try to help others.

(serious piano music) - Efforts to vaccinate Arizonans against COVID-19 are ongoing but the pace is slowing.

The number of doses administered each day is down from peaks, seen in late March and early April.

This week, FEMA rolled out two mobile vaccine units in Pima County in hopes of making it easier for people to get a shot.

Their first stops included Pima Community Colleges West and Desert View campuses.

Anyone 18 and older, can walk up on a first come, first serve basis.

No appointment or ID is necessary.

The units will spend a few days at each site before relocating.

The goal is to reach people in hard hit communities.

Here's FEMA's Region 9 Acting Administrator, Tammy Littrell.

- We'll go to the people.

The people won't have to worry about coming to fixed facilities for vaccination.

It's going to provide equitable access.

- Now we're reaching people, that have had the opportunity several times to get the vaccine and for whatever reason, they're conflicted.

- And that was Pima County Supervisor, Adelita Grijalva.

Declining administration rates nationwide is a cause for concern among some experts, worried that hesitancy could delay the country from reaching herd immunity.

We discussed some of those reasons and what the science says with University of Arizona, immunologist, Dr. Michael Johnson.

- Well, some of the reasons stem from just not having access to the right type of information.

It could be they heard an anecdote on social media.

Their cousin's baby's momma's friend told them about something.

But a lot of these things stem from things that are just, frankly, not true.

- To be fair though, there have been some challenges throughout this pandemic.

I mean, first it involved masks and then the Johnson and Johnson vaccine caused quite a bit of a stir.

So, if you are sitting out there and wondering is this the right move for me?

How do you navigate those feelings?

- Well, first I think it's important to point out that the American public right now is seeing the scientific process in action.

You're getting a view underneath the hood.

And, as scientists, when we're trying to do things, we're actively trying to disprove our hypothesis, right?

We have an idea of what will happen.

And we say, well, let me do experiments to prove or disprove that hypothesis, so that we know that moving forward that we are correct under a vast set of conditions.

With the Johnson and Johnson, when that got taken off, that actually proves that the system does work.

Instead of us saying, "Well, let's just leave this on the market, it might hurt people.

Screw them."

No, we don't say that.

We say, "Well, let's actually make sure, that this is verified, this is safe for people to take."

The thing with masks is well, we didn't actually have great data on how masks do protect people.

So we had to do all those studies on the fly to actually figure out, well, respiratory droplets will get caught in the mask.

So again, you're seeing the scientific process in action.

- Much of the concern from people who are skeptical, surrounded that this vaccine came to market much too quickly.

This is what you study.

What do you say to them?

- Well, what I can tell you is, that the safety period of study for this particular vaccine did not change from any other vaccine.

What ends up happening is when you're trying to get something to market, there's a lot of market analysis.

Will the community need this vaccine?

Will the community need this drug?

There's also a lot of manufacturing that you have to do which you don't do until you do that market research.

Otherwise you would lose out on all the money that you poured into something, if somebody actually doesn't need that.

What happened in making these particular COVID vaccines, is actually those processes started to overlap.

So the safety data was actually done at the same time as manufacturing and the market research wasn't necessarily needed, because it was pretty obvious.

And a lot of those processes, were also supported by the government so that they could actually be accelerated.

That was actually Project Warp Speed.

But again, the safety period, the study period, that actually did not change, it's just that everything was overlapping.

And that's what sped up the whole process.

- For the families who are watching this and hearing the news, that children could be vaccinated here very quickly.

What do you recommend to them about the best research for their family, as they debate whether or not they should do this?

- Well, I think that it's important for you to make sure that your sources are real.

And by that, I mean, if you see a meme on Facebook, if you see a meme on other social media, know those are sources that anyone can really make up at any particular time.

However, if you see verified research on CDC's website and IH's website, these are sources that you can actually trust.

And, it's weird to say, I guess the counterargument that people say, "Well, well you have an agenda.

You make money from, giving those vac..." I don't make any money from these vaccines.

My only agenda is to actually be able to go back to normal.

And the only way we're going to be able to do that is for people to be able to get vaccinated.

- You believe there's been a real need for communicating the science in layman's terms, but then doing so, so that it reaches a wide audience.

- Absolutely communication has been key.

So if you look at data in October, about 40% of African-Americans said that they would get the vaccine if available.

Counter that to March, all of a sudden, that percentage is in the 70's, as far as who would get vaccinated or have already been vaccinated, among the African-American community.

That was due to educating those particular populations.

Going into churches, going into schools, talking to community leaders.

So the education for this virus and for getting the vaccine, actually does work.

But, it just takes a lot of people to do that.

- Okay, Dr. Michael Johnson.

Thank you.

- Thank you very much.

- That's all for now.

Thanks for joining us.

To get in touch visit us on social media or send an email to arizona360@azpm.org and let us know what you think.

We'll see you next week.

(uplifting upbeat music)