South Mountain Freeway

As a resident engineer, Kole Dea is responsible for administering construction projects and ensuring that every ADOT contractor follows engineering plans precisely.

Beginning the week of Feb. 26, work will start on relocating a city of Phoenix waterline located within the footprint of Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway construction in Ahwatukee.

As work progresses on reconstructing Interstate 10 ramps between 51st and 67th avenues for construction on the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, the eastbound I-10 off-ramp at 67th Avenue will close beginning Wednesday, Feb. 21. The ramp is scheduled to reopen on April 2.

After moving more than 450,000 cubic yards of earth, enough to fill up 150 Olympic-size swimming pools, construction on the Southern Avenue traffic interchange for the South Mountain Freeway remains on track to reopen Southern next month between 61st Avenue and 64th Place in Laveen.

Moving dirt makes for an interesting photo in today's Art of Transportation.

One year after major construction began on the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, bridges have been built from the ground up, a massive amount of earth has been moved and compacted, and an emerging I-10 interchange has changed the West Valley skyline.

Changes are in store for motorists in the West Valley as multiple ramps leading to and from Interstate 10 will be permanently closed and reconfigured over the next several months to make room for an interchange connecting to the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway

We're wrapping up the week by showing you what happened at ADOT this week.

The first interchange under construction in Laveen for the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway is taking shape.

Photos help tell the story of a freeway that will bring traffic relief when it opens by late 2019.

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 – Construction equipment is now able to travel over 40th Street using new concrete bridge decks that eventually will carry traffic on the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway.

Another sign of progress on a 22-mile freeway that’s scheduled to open by late 2019, deck construction is one of the final steps in building a bridge. At 40th Street in Ahwatukee, the work followed several months of fabricating and installing piers, abutments and girders.

PHOENIX – Motorists who normally use Southern Avenue at 59th Avenue need to plan ahead and allow extra travel time as the Arizona Department of Transportation starts construction Monday, Nov. 27, on a Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway interchange in Laveen.

Southern Avenue will be closed at 59th Avenue through March so crews can build the southern half of one of the 22-mile freeway’s 13 interchanges.

PHOENIX – Another critical step in building the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway will start Monday, Nov. 27, as construction begins on the Southern Avenue interchange, work that will require an extended full closure of Southern at 59th Avenue.

The closure, scheduled to last through March, will allow crews to build the southern half of one of the South Mountain Freeway’s 13 interchanges, including moving more than 450,000 cubic yards of dirt. Sixteen concrete piers have already been planted to support a bridge over Southern Avenue.

PHOENIX – When the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway opens to traffic in late 2019, sound walls lining one or both sides along 11 of its 22 miles will reduce noise near neighborhoods and incorporate designs specific to various segments.

As the corridor looks more and more like the freeway it will become, crews have started building sound walls between 40th and 48th streets in Ahwatukee and near the Interstate 10 interchange at 59th Avenue in west Phoenix.

PHOENIX – The skyline is changing almost daily at Interstate 10 and 59th Avenue as an interchange takes shape that will connect with the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway in west Phoenix.

After work completed last weekend, motorists now see the first girders, more than six stories above I-10, for a flyover ramp that will carry South Mountain Freeway traffic to westbound I-10.

PHOENIX – Pecos Road between 40th and 24th streets will be closed this weekend for utility work for the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway. The Arizona Department of Transportation is urging Ahwatukee motorists to consider alternate routes, such as Chandler Boulevard.

Where better to learn about the intersection of math and transportation than the biggest transportation project in Arizona?

PHOENIX – Construction of the first traffic interchange in the Laveen area for the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway will require an extended full closure of Elliot Road at 59th Avenue beginning Monday, Oct. 23.

The closure, which will last through March 2018, will allow crews to accelerate construction of one of the 13 interchanges needed for the South Mountain Freeway.

In order to build the Elliot Road traffic interchange, construction crews will complete the following work:

Construction equipment being used for the South Mountain Freeway left eye-catching patterns on the ground near bridges going up over the Salt River.