Shondiin Silversmith
Arizona Mirror
For the Gila River Indian Community, the stretch of Interstate 10 that passes through its tribal lands headed toward Tucson has been considered unreliable, unsafe and often described as the “fatal funnel” due to the high number of accidents and fatalities in the area.
Up to 126,000 vehicles utilize that stretch of the I-10 every day, according to the tribe, and the 26-mile stretch of highway is the only section that does not have three lanes.
That portion of the highway has been a consistent strain on the GRIC families, students, elders, and employees, which led to an aggressive advocacy push for funding to widen the highway to match the roadways off their tribal land.
The push resulted in a $95 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to support a project to widen the 26-mile stretch of I-10.
“I am so proud of the community’s aggressive effort to ensure that this long-neglected stretch of the I-10 will be widened,” Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said in a press release .