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A Pima County jury on Friday ordered the city of Tucson to pay more than $700,000 to a resident who lost the use of his left arm after a bicycle accident in a construction zone.

Tim Harris, 47, was riding his bicycle on Craycroft Road south of Broadway in May 2003 when he struck a sandbag holding down a sign; he was thrown from his bike and run over by a car.

The judgment, if it stands, would be among the largest ever paid by the city. The city is still evaluating whether to appeal.

The largest single claim the city has had to pay was $1.25 million that went to the family of an 8-year-old boy killed when a police officer ran a red light.

Harris' attorneys, Greg Wasley and Carter Morey, filed a lawsuit against the city, Williams Centre, Triumph Builders Southwest and Ajax Barricade Co.

Court records indicate the case against Williams Centre was dismissed over the city's objections. Morey said Triumph and Ajax settled for undisclosed sums.

The lawsuit against the city was heard last week by a nine-member jury in Judge Deborah Bernini's courtroom.

Morey said he and Wasley argued that the city failed to create an alternative bicycle route, as dictated by city policy, and the barricades were put up improperly, "funneling" Harris into an ever-tightening space.

The jury came back with a $1,360,000 award, assigning the city 52 percent of the blame, Morey said. Harris and Ajax were assigned 23 percent and 22 percent of the blame, respectively, and the jurors apportioned Triumph 3 percent of the blame. Though the driver of the car, Lawrence Hart, was never named in the lawsuit, the jury assigned him no blame.

The city is studying the case to determine if an appeal should be filed, said City Attorney Mike Rankin.

Assistant City Attorney Mark Christensen told jurors all of the appropriate signs had been posted warning of the construction area, Rankin said. In addition, the city creates alternative bicycle routes only if more than a one-mile area is affected, and it wasn't in this case.

Everything the city did was consistent with national standards, Rankin said.

"It's a large verdict, but we plan for these," Rankin said. "For a city of our size you can expect large verdicts, and we build them into our capacity."

The city is self-insured, which means the payments come from taxpayer funds.