Growth is fueling a flurry of freeway projects in the Southeast Valley.
Commuters in Tempe, Ahwatukee, Chandler, Mesa, Gilbert, Apache Junction and Queen Creek will face detours, roadblocks and other slowdowns before long-term benefits come to a street or freeway near them.
The first project is a short-term fix to the "Broadway Curve" bottleneck that will affect all commuters driving to and from the Southeast Valley and downtown Phoenix beginning next year.
Also on the drawing board: the largest overhaul of Interstate 10 in the Southeast Valley and parts of Phoenix. The project would create a freeway within a freeway along the current I-10 route from the Santan Freeway portion of Loop 202 to Arizona 143 by Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and mean major changes to the I-10/Interstate 17 split and revamping Arizona 51, another notorious bottleneck.
In addition, the Arizona Department of Transportation is studying where the Williams Gateway Freeway should be built in east Mesa and whether the U.S. 60 should be rerouted away from Gold Canyon in Pinal County.
Those projects come amid the ongoing debate over whether to finish Loop 202 by building the 10-lane South Mountain Freeway through Ahwatukee Foothills along Pecos Road and cutting through part of South Mountain to connect to 55th Avenue in Laveen.
ADOT has held several public meetings over the past few weeks to explain the projects and answer questions from residents, business owners and commuters. More than 350 residents packed one meeting on the U.S. 60 reroute, while only a few dozen residents attended the more recent meeting on I-10 Corridor Study, which is modeled after braided freeway systems in Southern California, Chicago, Detroit and Toronto.
The meetings are part of the planning process to build freeways that move record numbers of new residents flooding the Valley, especially in such high-growth areas as east Mesa, southeast Chandler, Apache Junction and Pinal County.
Many of the projects are long-term and still being studied.
But work on the Broadway Curve could start as early as January. In February, Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman complained that delays in promised improvements to the area were "substantially undermining the quality of life for the people who are living here in Tempe now."
ADOT responded with a short-term, $3 million fix to improve westbound I-10 traffic flow by extending the right merge lane along westbound I-10 from Southern Avenue to give motorists more room to merge from U.S. 60 to the I-10. They also will get a dedicated exit lane at Arizona 143.
"This is a short-term project, a right-now project that we’re able to do because we sat down with the city of Tempe, MAG (the Maricopa Association of Governments) and the (Federal Highway Administration) to look at what could be done" now, ADOT spokesman Doug Nintzel said.
Hallman said in a prepared statement that he is "grateful" for the short-term Broadway Curve fix that will "help ease congestion and reduce air pollution in this ‘hot spot,’ "while the region works on long-range transportation solutions."
Nearly 294,000 vehicles pass through the Broadway Curve each day, making it the second-busiest section in the Valley’s freeways. The confluence of Arizona 51, I-10 and the Loop 202 near Washington Street is No. 1 with about 303,000 vehicles each day.
By 2025, the load on the Broadway Curve is expected to increase to at least 450,000 vehicles per day.
ADOT’s Nintzel said it’s not a coincidence that a bevy of freeway projects are coming to the Southeast Valley at the same time.
"The plate is full. We’re seeing the effects of the RTP (Regional Public TransportationPlan) and the transportation propositions that are a key component of the MAG 20-year regional transportation plan," Nintzel said.
The region also is starting to see the effects of accelerated funding approved by Gov. Janet Napolitano and the state Legislature last year.
The Statewide Acceleration Needs Plan "is an example of finding ways to build things sooner than planned," Nintzel said. Among those projects are speeding up the building of carpool lanes on the Loop 101 from Baseline Road to the Santan Freeway.
The STAN, as it is called, also set aside $20.3 million for ADOT to buy land to establish a right-of-way corridor for the Williams Gateway Freeway. The agency hasn’t picked a preferred alignment and is working with Mesa, the county and land owners who plan to build houses and businesses in the area.
"The urgency there is identify the corridor and protect the right of way with Mesa and Queen Creek," said Matt Burdick, director of ADOT communications. "Let’s figure out where this is going to go because development activities are occurring."
Despite the accelerated Southeast Valley projects, the area’s top business leader said there’s more work to be done more quickly.
"At the end of the day, we probably don’t have enough," said Roc Arnett, president and CEO of the East Valley Partnership. "We’re grateful, but it’s not enough."
Kerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic
