South Mountain Freeway

Salt River bridges for the South Mountain Freeway have the longest girders ever installed by ADOT and will improve mobility in a growing area of the southwest Valley.

PHOENIX – The Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, already the largest single highway project in Arizona history, now has the longest bridge girders of their type in the state.

As long as a 17-story building and each weighing as much as 14 elephants, 94 extra-long single span girders have already been placed on two bridge structures (northbound and southbound) that will carry traffic over the Salt River when the South Mountain Freeway opens by late 2019.

PHOENIX – Pecos Road traffic between 17th Avenue and 24th Street in the Ahwatukee Foothills will be briefly detoured to Chandler Boulevard when controlled rock blasting for the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway project begins Tuesday, Sept. 12.

There's a lot to see and a lot happening at I-10 and 59th Avenue in west Phoenix, where an interchange under construction will link with the South Mountain Freeway.

PHOENIX – Big changes are in store for the Interstate 10 traffic interchange at 59th Avenue in west Phoenix. Built in 1984, it’s being reconstructed to eventually link to the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway when it opens to traffic in late 2019.

Motorists who regularly travel I-10 between the West Valley and downtown Phoenix have already noticed an ever-changing landscape.

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.

PHOENIX – With the city of Phoenix set to open its Chandler Boulevard extension between 27th and 19th avenues at 8:30 a.m. Friday, July 28, Pecos Road west of 17th Avenue will close permanently for construction of the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway.

Westbound Pecos Road traffic will divert north at 17th Avenue, and the Chandler Boulevard extension will provide access to and from the Foothills Reserve Community, which motorists now reach via Pecos Road.

PHOENIX – To construct Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway in the Ahwatukee Foothills, crews have been using heavy equipment since April to excavate a hillside near Desert Foothills Parkway.

PHOENIX – With Pecos Road shifted to make room for the next phase of construction of the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, the Arizona Department of Transportation is reminding motorists that a reduced 40 mph speed limit is in place through the entire segment of this local roadway in the Ahwatukee Foothills.

Last weekend, Pecos Road traffic between 17th Avenue and 24th Street shifted to an alignment that maintains two travel lanes in each direction while ensuring there’s a safe work zone to construct the freeway. 

Crews are making headway on the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway that is expected to open to traffic in 2019.

PHOENIX – Pecos Road between 17th Avenue and 24th Street is shifting to an interim alignment for Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway construction.

During a weekend closure ending in time for the morning commute on Monday, July 17, the current eastbound lanes of Pecos Road will be widened and restriped to maintain two lanes of traffic in each direction along this nearly four-mile-long stretch in the Ahwatukee Foothills. 

PHOENIX – The Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway continues taking shape with the installation of bridge girders, together weighing more than two Boeing 747 jets, at the future interchange with 17th Avenue in the Ahwatukee Foothills.

The girders are the first placed for the Arizona Department of Transportation’s South Mountain Freeway project, which will require a total of nearly 1,100 girders on 40 bridge structures throughout the 22-mile-long corridor.

PHOENIX – Several major milestones on the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway project will require some extended closures of roadways in Ahwatukee during the month of July, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation. 

Following the Fourth of July holiday, the first girders will be set on the new bridges over 17th Avenue and 40th Street. In mid-July, crews will shift Pecos Road traffic between 24th Street and 17th Avenue to an interim roadway following a similar reconfiguration that took place between 40th and 24th streets in April.

PHOENIX ‒ Cases of chilled bottled water, protective lightweight clothing, sun visors and shaded tent areas, coupled with mandatory training on dealing with extreme heat, are just some of the ways crews building the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway are prepared for temperatures forecast to surge beyond 110.

PHOENIX – Drivers using Interstate 10 through west Phoenix should plan ahead to avoid two closures of the westbound lanes at 59th Avenue for initial work to build a flyover bridge that will eventually connect to the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.

PHOENIX – Less than six months after major construction began on the state’s largest single highway project ever, progress on the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway has been swift.

PHOENIX – Building a freeway requires moving a lot of dirt, particularly for the roadway surface, and to build bridge and wall foundations, embankments and connecting ramps.

For the 22-mile Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, the largest-ever highway project in Arizona, crews will haul and compact about 10 million cubic yards of earth, the equivalent of more than 800,000 truckloads and enough to fill University of Phoenix Stadium 13 times.

PHOENIX – Much-needed traffic relief is in store for motorists in the southwest Valley when the Arizona Department of Transportation completes Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway bridges over the Salt River at 59th Avenue.

PHOENIX – At the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway’s future interchange at 17th Avenue, patterned walls being assembled in Lego-like fashion offer a glimpse of a construction technique that’s essential to completing the project by late 2019.

These mechanically stabilized earth walls, commonly referred to as MSE walls, are concrete panels as large as 5-by-10 feet that fit into place. They are part of a system, used on Arizona Department of Transportation projects since the 1970s, using the walls and steel reinforcing straps to construct the retaining walls under bridges.

PHOENIX – A stretch of northbound 59th Avenue approaching Interstate 10 will be closed for several days starting Wednesday, May 3, for the relocation of a city of Phoenix sewer line. The work is part of the Arizona Department of Transportation’s project to build the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway.

Northbound 59th Avenue will be closed between Roosevelt Street and I-10 (Papago Freeway) from 5:30 a.m. Wednesday to 5 a.m. Monday, May 8.

Motorists should consider 51st or 67th avenues and Van Buren Street as alternate routes while northbound 59th Avenue is closed.