South Mountain Freeway

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.

PHOENIX – With a 100-ton crane standing adjacent to Interstate 10 near 59th Avenue and an oversized drill rig parked nearby in the median, work is getting underway to construct piers supporting the flyover ramps for the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway interchange at I-10 in the West Valley.

A series of closures of westbound I-10 between 51st and 67th avenues are needed during the next few weeks to move this equipment to begin work on structures that will carry traffic over I-10 when the South Mountain Freeway opens by late 2019.

PHOENIX – Slow down.

The Arizona Department of Transportation is sending that message to motorists traveling on a stretch of Pecos Road reconfigured for Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway construction.

ADOT and Connect 202 Partners, the developer building the South Mountain Freeway, have installed speed-monitoring equipment and signs showing motorists both how fast they are going and the reduced speed limit of 40 mph. The digital signs flash repeatedly when motorists travel more than 5 mph above the speed limit.

ADOT Director John Halikowski highlights key design features of the new South Mountain Freeway and encourages you to take a virtual tour of the freeway.

PHOENIX – While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has scheduled a public hearing on an Arizona Department of Transportation permit application for Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway work in areas deemed waterways, the project remains on track for completion in late 2019.

ADOT’s project team will move forward with other construction while the May 9 hearing is pending.

PHOENIX – Motorists using Pecos Road will see a new configuration starting early Monday, April 3, as construction continues on the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway.

When the new Pecos Road alignment between 24th and 40th streets is open to traffic Monday morning, the current eastbound lanes will be widened to carry two directions of traffic. This will allow for freeway construction to proceed where the current westbound lanes are located.

Pecos Road motorists should be aware of the following changes when the new configuration opens at 5 a.m., Monday, April 3:

PHOENIX – Pecos Road traffic between 24th and 40th streets is scheduled to shift early Monday, April 3, to an alignment designed to maintain Ahwatukee Foothills traffic during Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway construction.

The current eastbound lanes of Pecos Road in this stretch will be widened and restriped over the next two weeks to maintain two lanes of traffic in each direction. This shift creates a safe work zone for construction of the mainline freeway as the westbound lanes will be permanently removed because they are located within the freeway footprint.

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

PHOENIX – As the Loop South Mountain Freeway moves toward completion in late 2019, a new flyover animation reflects updated plans for the 22-mile-long corridor.

The six-and-a-half minute virtual tour of the South Mountain Freeway, the largest single freeway project in state history, is available at SouthMountainFreeway.com.

PHOENIX – Looking a bit like a colorful Stonehenge or large-scale modern art, a series of concrete columns and walls at a west Phoenix intersection may be a little puzzling to passers-by. They’re actually mock-ups the Arizona Department of Transportation is using to test aesthetics, including paint colors, for the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway.

This year ADOT will continue to make improvements in our state transportation system to ensure we keeps Arizona’s economy moving.

PHOENIX – The work may not scream “bridge construction” just yet, but that’s exactly what’s starting at several sites along the 22-mile-long South Mountain Freeway corridor.

Crews from Connect 202 Partners, developer of the South Mountain Freeway project, are constructing foundations for bridges at future Loop 202 interchanges with 17th Avenue, 24th Street and 40th Street along the freeway segment following Pecos Road and where the freeway will cross the Salt River south of Broadway Road in Laveen.

These are the first of 40 bridges planned along the freeway’s path.

PHOENIX – Good news for drivers using Interstate 10 west of downtown Phoenix: The westbound closure between 51st and 75th avenues has been lifted ahead of schedule.

One westbound lane of I-10 has reopened going into 51st Avenue , and crews are in the process of removing traffic barricades to reopen all lanes.

PHOENIX – Information is power for those whose commutes and daily routines intersect with construction of the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway.

The Arizona Department of Transportation has made it easy to get email and text alerts that will help you save time. Just visit SouthMountainFreeway.com and click the orange button that reads “Sign up for traffic alerts now!” Each week, you’ll receive a list of lane restrictions and closures in the works so you can plan accordingly.

PHOENIX – Construction of the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway remains on track with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejecting the Gila River Indian Community’s motion for an injunction pending appeal.

The order, released Friday, means work can proceed on the South Mountain Freeway while an appeal by freeway opponents is pending before the 9th Circuit in San Francisco. It’s the fifth time courts have rejected attempts to halt construction of this long-planned link between the East Valley and West Valley.

PHOENIX – To help keep Ahwatukee Foothills traffic moving during construction of the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, the Arizona Department of Transportation will begin widening the eastbound lanes of Pecos Road on Monday, Jan. 16, to accommodate two-way traffic.

PHOENIX – With Valley drivers benefiting from several freeway improvement projects completed during 2016, including the widening of Loop 101 between Shea Boulevard and Loop 202 (Red Mountain Freeway) in the Scottsdale area, the Arizona Department of Transportation is poised to start or complete several Phoenix-area projects in the coming year.

ADOT’s highlights for the regional freeway system in 2017 include: