AHWATUKEE, Ariz. - It won’t be completed until 2019, but the Arizona Department of Transportation is providing an early look at the South Mountain Freeway, which began construction last year.
An ADOT video takes you on a virtual six-and-a-half-minute flyover tour of the finished freeway. It reflects the freeway’s design as of January.
Some of the design modifications include:
•Sound walls to diminish freeway noise
•A six-mile shared-use path between 40th Street and 17th Avenue in Ahwatukee
•Direct HOV lane access to and from Downtown Phoenix near 59th Avenue at the freeway’s western end
•A pedestrian bridge north of Broadway Road to connect the Rio del Rey neighborhoods in Phoenix
•Interchange reconfigurations, including diverging diamond interchanges at Desert Foothills Parkway and 17th Avenue, moving the interchange at 51st Avenue to Estrella Drive and realigning the freeway at 59th Avenue south of Elliot Road
•Changes to the alignment that reduce the amount of right-of-way required
•Landscaping treatments along the freeway
The 22-mile freeway is expected to connect Interstate 10 in Chandler and Laveen.
ADOT said the project will help ease the flow of traffic along Loop 202 and Interstate 10. It will also give larger semi-trucks an option to avoid driving through Downtown Phoenix by cutting through South Mountain.
The project will happen in four concurrent phases and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019.