Borderland Construction is putting the final seal coat and pavement markings on Tangerine Road this week and next. The work runs from Monday, October 19, through Monday, November 2, 2026, and covers the stretch from the railroad crossing to just past the Tangerine Business Loop. Fresh striping on a four-lane road looks like a finish line. It closes out one piece of what the Town of Marana calls the Great Tangerine Squeeze. The piece that affects drivers the most has no start date yet.
Each phase of the Squeeze runs on a different clock, and different people own those clocks. Contractor and Town schedules are fixed and posted. The railroad crossing work depends on Union Pacific and the Arizona Corporation Commission. That piece is the one that will close Tangerine at the tracks for about two months.
Who Sets Each Date on Tangerine Road
The Town's Tangerine Road and Interchange Improvements page splits the work into phases, and each one has a different status.
| Piece of work | Posted timing | What the timing depends on |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 2A seal coat and striping, railroad crossing to past Tangerine Business Loop | Oct. 19 to Nov. 2, 2026 | Contractor schedule, weather |
| Phase 5 underpass abutment lanes at I-10 | Mid-May 2026 to March 2027 | Contractor schedule |
| Westbound off-ramp at Exit 240 reduced to one left-turn lane | Until March 2027 | Phase 5 construction |
| Railroad crossing improvements | Not yet determined | Union Pacific and Arizona Corporation Commission reviews |
| Phase 2B widening, Marana Tech Drive to Dove Mountain/Twin Peaks Boulevard | In design, no construction date posted | Town and Regional Transportation Authority funding |
| Ultimate interchange with grade-separated crossing | Not yet determined | Future funding |
Borderland Construction and the Town control the dates in the first three rows. Union Pacific, state regulators and future funding decide the rest.
What This Fall's Striping Finishes
Phase 2A is the Regional Transportation Authority and Town partnership. It turned Tangerine Road from I-10 to just west of Marana Tech Drive into a four-lane road with drainage improvements, sidewalks, a multi-use path, Marana Water line extensions, and landscaping. The Town's page still lists March 2026 as the expected completion date. The seal coat and pavement markings going down now are the final layer of that work.
Expect lane reductions and shifts through November 2. The traffic shift runs from 6:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and the Town says access to every business along the corridor stays open. Bad weather can push the work back without further notice. That's the one variable in this phase, and in late October the monsoon is behind us.
Those hours leave the evenings open. The Town's Halloween Treat Trail runs tonight, Thursday, October 22, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Ed Honea Marana Municipal Complex, 11555 W. Civic Center Drive. Town departments dress up and run themed candy booths, joined by the Marana Food Bank and Northwest Fire District. The Tucson rock trio ZNORA plays, and Kona Ice and Col. Mustard's are on the food truck list. The striping crews will have been off the road for two hours by the time it starts.
The Exit 240 Bottleneck Runs Until March 2027
The underpass work is the longer squeeze. Phase 5 builds new lanes alongside the I-10 bridge supports. The Town calls them "abutment lanes," and that work is scheduled from mid-May 2026 through March 2027. Until then, the westbound off-ramp at Tangerine Road, Exit 240, is down to a single left-turn lane, and the Town advises drivers to avoid that exit at peak rush hour, especially on the drive home from Tucson. KVOA reported the advisory along with the two bypasses the Town recommends.
- Toward Gladden Farms: exit I-10 at Avra Valley Road, take Sanders Road to Moore Road, then continue to Tangerine Farms Road.
- Toward Dove Mountain or Oro Valley: take Exit 244 for Twin Peaks Road and follow it to the Dove Mountain Boulevard and Tangerine Road intersection.
At the March 17 council meeting, staff estimated the Avra Valley and Sanders route into north Marana at about five minutes longer. Explorer News covered that meeting. Town communications manager Vic Hathaway told commuters to avoid the interchange if they can, and Public Works Director Fausto Burruel described the difficulty of rebuilding an interchange that carries this much traffic while keeping it open. The council discussion also raised the risk of queues backing up onto I-10. Crews need room to dig and build the abutment lanes, so the underpass runs one lane in each direction while they work.
One restriction that drivers may have braced for didn't happen. The Town had planned to block left turns from eastbound Tangerine onto the Phoenix-bound I-10 on-ramp starting September 4. Its traffic alert now says Borderland suspended that restriction and I-10 access continues as normal. Parts of the project page text still describe the restriction, so the Town's live traffic alerts are the better reference before a trip.
The Abutment Lanes Stay Closed Until the Railroad Work Is Done
March 2027 is when the abutment lanes are expected to be built. Drivers can't use them then, because they only open as part of the Union Pacific Railroad crossing phase. The Town says that phase is in final design and needs separate reviews and approvals from Union Pacific and the Arizona Corporation Commission.
The railroad phase also brings the biggest disruption of the whole project. To finish the crossing improvements, Tangerine Road will fully close at the railroad crossing for an extended period, which the Town currently expects to last about eight weeks. It hasn't set the timing, and it says project milestones may shift with outside agency schedules. At the March council meeting, staff said the closure depends on Union Pacific's schedule. They described Tangerine closing at the tracks while staying open under the I-10 bridge, with the ramps open apart from possible intermittent closures.
Look at a map and the crossing sits right on the Gladden Farms side of the interchange. Drivers heading west from I-10 toward Gladden Farms and Tangerine Farms Road will feel that closure the most, and the Avra Valley, Sanders and Moore bypass already serves that trip. Our earlier post on the Gladden Farms corner that finally feels like a town center covers the shops and restaurants at the end of that drive.
Twin Peaks Road Just Became the Other Way Around
The bypass toward Dove Mountain and Oro Valley runs through a road project the Town finished a few weeks ago. On September 29, 2026, Marana held a ribbon cutting for the Twin Peaks Road/Rattlesnake Pass project, which widened Twin Peaks Road and added extensive drainage improvements and a new multi-use pathway. The Town of Marana, Pima County, D.R. Horton and Hunter Contracting built it together. The American Public Works Association Arizona Chapter named it Project of the Year in the transportation category for projects valued at $25 million to $75 million.
The landmark on that drive is a large rattlesnake sculpture called Serpentina, or "Tina," a name picked by public vote. The Planning Center came up with the concept, and Cemrock designed and fabricated it. The sculpture honors the Rattlesnake Pass name, which goes back to the 1930s, and it's lit at night. In the Town's announcement, Burruel called Twin Peaks Rattlesnake Pass "a beautiful addition to the Town of Marana." Drivers who take Exit 244 home this winter will pass Tina in the dark.
The Longer Horizon Past the Railroad Phase
Even after the railroad crossing is finished, the work isn't over. Phase 2B will widen Tangerine from Marana Tech Drive to the Dove Mountain/Twin Peaks Boulevard intersection, and the Town lists it as in design with no construction date posted. The Town describes everything happening now as an "interim" interchange. The ultimate version would carry Tangerine over both the tracks and I-10 with a grade-separated crossing. The Regional Transportation Authority's corridor page lists that full reconstruction as a ballot item, with construction set to start in the period between fiscal years 2032 and 2036.
For the next two weeks, the stretch west of I-10 gets its final stripes, and the evening events at the Municipal Complex fall outside the work hours. The next Concerts in the Courtyard is Thursday, November 19, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., with the Tucson funk and rock band OnesAll, a Marana Food Bank food drive, and food trucks Al Gusto Coffee Co., Haus of Brats and Sarah's Fresh-Tossed Pasta Bowls. The undated item to watch is the railroad crossing closure. The Town's traffic alert sign-up is where the eight-week window will show up once Union Pacific sets it.
If you own a home near Tangerine Road and wonder how a closed crossing or a finished interchange might change the way buyers see your part of Marana, we're glad to talk it through calmly, with no pressure. Genardini Realty Solutions can start with a clear look at where your home stands today. Request Your Home Valuation.