An Arizona lawmaker wants barriers constructed on Interstate 10 to reduce the hazard caused by blowing dust.
The Casa Grande Dispatch reports that Tucson Democrat Sen. Steve Farley says the U.S. Department of Agriculture was apparently able to reduce dust-related accidents in 1977 by using bulldozers to pile several berms near the freeway. The barrier was topped with native vegetation that was able to survive on natural water runoff from the highway.
Farley has proposed such barriers as a simple, low-maintenance solution to the blowing dust storms that been limiting visibility on I-10 near the New Mexico border.
He says the plan can't move forward until the state knows whether landowners in the area would support it, but he has had trouble identifying and contacting some of them.
