Cochise County staff on Dec. 16 told the Flood Control District board that the Coyote Wash project is in construction and expected to be completed by February, and that Molson Road will require a multi‑decade, high‑cost effort to manage stormwater.

Jackie, the county presenter, said the Coyote Wash job is a $5,500,000 construction contract and that Rommel Construction is performing the work using roller‑compacted concrete. "It is in construction," Jackie said, adding the contractor is "doing a great job." She gave a February completion target.

The staff presentation framed Molson Road as a HEERP (High‑Elevation Emergency Road Program) project spanning 7.7 miles with 11 major crossings and about 4,500 vehicles per day. Jackie said the estimated construction cost is roughly $50,000,000 and that completing all necessary work could take 20 to 30 years. Under the design shown to the board, Jackie said the corridor would move from 42 existing pipe culverts to 131 pipe culverts, add three box culverts and include two bridge sections to accommodate stormwater.

Board members asked whether affected areas are private land; Jackie said "most of it is, yes," and warned that private‑land ownership complicates right‑of‑way work and drainage solutions. When asked about contractors, Jackie named Rommel Construction and explained that roller‑compacted concrete is a specialty technique.

Jackie also walked the board through unit costs used in planning. For example, she cited an estimated constructed cost for a 24‑inch pipe culvert of about $120 per foot and presented a worked example (2,363 linear feet in one segment) and a total pipe culvert cost of $3,800,000 for that example. The presentation emphasized that installation costs, not just materials, drive large project budgets.

Because many of the drainage paths cross private property and long FEMA‑mapped floodplains, staff said solutions such as widening box culverts or raising roads carry both high price tags and the risk of backing water onto neighboring parcels. "If you raise the road to accommodate a culvert, then you're impacting, because you're backing up water onto someone's property," Jackie warned.

The board did not take any formal votes on the projects during the work session. Staff said additional design work and watershed studies will continue before any project moves to construction or to the formal board agenda.