ADOT opens two more ramps connecting Loop 303 and Interstate 10 west of Phoenix

PHOENIX - Two more ramps providing direct connections between Loop 303 and Interstate 10 in Goodyear, west of Phoenix, have opened to traffic this morning, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Crews constructing the interchange linking Loop 303 and I-10 north of the interstate worked overnight to finish pavement markings and remove barricades in order to open the ramps.

One ramp connects westbound I-10 to northbound Loop 303 while the second ramp links southbound Loop 303 to westbound I-10.

ADOT opened the first two ramps at the interchange last weekend. Those two ramps connect north- and southbound Loop 303 with eastbound I-10.

Crews have been working on the $145 million Loop 303/I-10 interchange project with a goal of opening the ramps by September. Despite recent summer rainstorms, they were able to reach that goal. Construction of the project started in November, 2011.

Work to open additional roadways that are part of the "north half" project at the Loop 303/I-10 interchange will continue over the next month. Crews will finish the reconstruction of Cotton Lane in the area where it travels beneath I-10, and complete the new I-10 frontage roads stretching between Sarival Avenue and Citrus Road in Goodyear. Pulice Construction, Inc., of Phoenix, is the prime contractor on the project.

A second project to construct the south half of the Loop 303/I-10 interchange is scheduled to start by 2016.

Over the last three years, ADOT has constructed a series of projects to upgrade what had been a two-lane Loop 303 into a six-lane freeway over a distance of more than 12 miles between I-10 in Goodyear and Grand Avenue in Surprise. In all, Loop 303 now stretches more than 35 miles between I-10 in the West Valley to I-17 in north Phoenix.

The Loop 303 improvement projects are funded through the Maricopa Association of Governments' 20-year Regional Transportation Plan approved by county voters in 2004.