Loop 202

This archived photo shows the Red Mountain Freeway in its development. 

The Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway is up for an award, but whether it receives the award is up to you!

Three ADOT projects from the last year have been recognized as some of the best in the industry in the 2020 America's Transportation Awards.

PHOENIX – Two sections of pavement along Loop 202 (Santan Freeway) are much smoother to drive on following an Arizona Department of Transportation improvement project.

Crews worked in recent weeks to remove the worn top layer of rubberized asphalt along most of the eastbound Loop 202 lanes between Interstate 10 and Loop 101 (Price Freeway). Specialized machines, which include rotating diamond-tipped blades, smoothed the remaining concrete base pavement in a process known as diamond grinding.

PHOENIX – After construction on 40 bridges over more than two years, workers have placed the final girder for the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, the Arizona Department of Transportation’s single largest-ever freeway construction project.

Crews with Connect 202 Partners, the freeway developer, lowered the 91-foot, 77,000-pound girder into place recently at the interchange under construction at Desert Foothills Parkway in Ahwatukee. This work will be followed by pouring the concrete deck for the overpass later this month.

PHOENIX – Arizona Department of Transportation engineers are exploring another option for smoothing out the ride along Phoenix-area freeways where the asphalt pavement showed its age and was wearing down, especially after last winter’s heavier wet weather.

Sections of Loop 202 (Santan Freeway) in the southeast Valley are scheduled to be closed on two weekends in May for pavement improvements.

Here's a look back at the milestones on the largest single highway project in Arizona history.

Deck pours as we build the South Mountain Freeway give us a chance to explain the role a Bid-Well plays in smoothing concrete.

Two-way traffic is being restored in stages along Liberty Lane, where crews are relocating a large waterline from the path of the South Mountain Freeway in Ahwatukee.

Construction, now halfway complete, is underway along 95 percent of the 22-mile corridor.

We're counting down some of the biggest news for Arizona motorists in our Friday Five blog.

In a major milestone, ADOT completes first bridge spanning the future Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway.

PHOENIX – The Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway remains on track to open by late 2019 with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco affirming a U.S. District Court ruling that allowed the Arizona Department of Transportation to move forward with construction.

PHOENIX – Creating the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway’s interchange with Interstate 10 in west Phoenix is no small feat of engineering, starting with the need to have supports for flyover ramps to straddle existing lanes of traffic.

While it will won't be until late 2019 before South Mountain Freeway opens, a new video allows you to visualize the drive today.

While continuing efforts to connect occupants with services, the state is assisting organizers of an encampment on Arizona Department of Transportation land in Mesa with plans to relocate.

Out of concern for the health, safety and well-being of those at the site, ADOT began discussions last week with camp organizers about plans to relocate and notified them Friday that they would need to move on. At the request of organizers, the state will allow the encampment near the Loop 202 Red Mountain Freeway and McKellips Road to remain until March 20.