Maricopa's bridge project: Take a virtual helicopter ride into the future

By Tom Herrmann / ADOT Communications

The work won’t begin until this fall, and the new bridge and alignment for State Route 347 in Maricopa won’t be ready for traffic until 2019. But with this virtual tour, you can get a bird’s eye view of what the heart of Maricopa will look like before the end of 2019.

The two-year, $55 million project will dramatically change the way drivers move through one of the fastest-growing cities in Arizona. Here’s how:

• Northbound traffic no longer will have to wait for as many as 40 trains that cross SR 347 each day. A bridge will carry drivers over both the tracks and the current alignment of Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway.
• Southbound drivers can use the bridge to continue to the south side of the city, or use an exit ramp to go under the bridge toward Casa Grande.
• Drivers coming north into Maricopa from Casa Grande will take a new road north to Honeycutt, then travel west to SR 347.
• A new traffic light at Honeycutt and SR 347 will replace the current signal at Maricopa Casa-Grande Highway.

At the end of the project drivers will have three lanes of traffic in each direction compared with two lanes today, the same number of traffic signals and zero delays for passing trains.

The 200-plus Maricopa residents who joined us for a presentation about this project last week said they liked what they saw in this virtual tour. It about 60 seconds to watch each. We think you'll like what the future holds for downtown Maricopa.