Hidden Valley residents can expect smoother drives in the future.

Supervisor Rich Vitiello (R-Maricopa) shared updates on current and upcoming road improvements in the area during today’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

Among the updates was confirmation that improvements to Ralston Road over Vekol Wash are 55% complete, despite a slight setback caused by recent rainfall. Vitiello shared the update in a YouTube video published to the county’s page yesterday.

“It’s amazing how much work has been done in such a short period of time,” Vitiello said in the video.

Work on the project began in July and includes installation of a culvert and an all-weather crossing over the wash, which has historically flooded during heavy rainfall. Vitiello said the project remains on track for completion by July of this year.

“It’s really going to be a massive improvement, especially for public safety. There’s times you can’t even pass through that area on Ralston Road,” he said. “This is going to be able to allow the horses and the animals to continue doing what they do, day in and day out, and make sure that the residents of the area are able to cross over a bridge, as opposed to going through 2, 3, 4 feet of water.”

Once completed, Ralston Road will remain a two-lane roadway, though it has been designed to allow for expansion to four lanes in the future.

With that project underway and construction slated to begin in June on State Route 347 between the northern city limits and Interstate 10, Vitiello said he also wants to shift his focus to improvements on the dangerous southern portion of SR 347, the site of multiple recent rollover crashes and fatal collisions.

“With the possibility of 118,000 homes that can come into that area, we need to think ahead now, not 20 years from now,” he said.

Vitiello added that he has begun discussions with officials from the Arizona Department of Transportation, though no timeline for that project has been established.