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Regional Boards => Mountain West => Topic started by: coatimundi on July 13, 2016, 07:23:11 PM

Title: 1987 Phoenix, "To I-10 East" Exit
Post by: coatimundi on July 13, 2016, 07:23:11 PM
I have the 1987 Sunset Highway Services Directory for TX, NM and AZ (ISBN 0376063343) and, just happening to pull it out yesterday looking for another map, I noticed that the 59th Avenue exit on I-10, #138, is listed as "59th Ave./To I-10 E." The exits listed stop at 27th Avenue and begin again at 40th Street.

Any idea on what that "To I-10 E." is referring to? Was traffic ever routed onto 59th Avenue to get around the unbuilt section?
Title: Re: 1987 Phoenix, "To I-10 East" Exit
Post by: Avalanchez71 on July 13, 2016, 08:05:30 PM
What took so long to build it?  What is with the weird I-17 and I-10 routing? 
Title: Re: 1987 Phoenix, "To I-10 East" Exit
Post by: Zonie on July 13, 2016, 10:02:52 PM
I would start here to understand the why:

https://arizonaroads.com/urban/index.html
Title: Re: 1987 Phoenix, "To I-10 East" Exit
Post by: Max Rockatansky on July 13, 2016, 11:14:22 PM
Basically the original design for I-10 was a ugly as sin raised freeway through downtown Phoenix.  Basically everyone hated it and there was a crap ton of legislative push back for years until the Deck Park Tunnel design which was opened in 1990.  The funny thing is if you look at the center of the Deck Park Tunnel there is actually lanes for buses that never actually opened for use. 
Title: Re: 1987 Phoenix, "To I-10 East" Exit
Post by: coatimundi on July 14, 2016, 12:32:57 AM
Is this all being directed at my questions, or the second post?
Because I know the story of the tunnel and the delayed completion of I-10 through town. My question was just regarding whether traffic was routed, via signage, onto 59th Avenue at some point. Was traffic directed to McDowell, or onto Old US 80/Buckeye Road? And I'm curious why it would be at 59th Avenue, and not at the last exit at that time, 27th Ave.
Just looking for information on that period before the Stack was built.
Title: Re: 1987 Phoenix, "To I-10 East" Exit
Post by: Max Rockatansky on July 14, 2016, 12:53:34 AM
Quote from: coatimundi on July 14, 2016, 12:32:57 AM
Is this all being directed at my questions, or the second post?
Because I know the story of the tunnel and the delayed completion of I-10 through town. My question was just regarding whether traffic was routed, via signage, onto 59th Avenue at some point. Was traffic directed to McDowell, or onto Old US 80/Buckeye Road? And I'm curious why it would be at 59th Avenue, and not at the last exit at that time, 27th Ave.
Just looking for information on that period before the Stack was built.

Sorry misunderstood.  It had to been Buckeye Road where the I-10T signs were, it's about the only place that would have made sense...at least until I-10 started to approach I-17 from the west.  What exit though by 1987 unfortunately I do not know.  This 1971 Map of Phoenix doesn't even show an I-10T but has AZ 69T running on Baseline.  I would imagine that there had to be I-10 signs running on Buckeye. 

(https://www.arizonaroads.com/maps/1971-7.jpg)
Title: Re: 1987 Phoenix, "To I-10 East" Exit
Post by: coatimundi on July 14, 2016, 04:05:45 PM
My thought is that the book took the text from one of the signs when 59th was the end, probably from an earlier edition, but the interchanges were catalogued when I-10 made it to 27th. It doesn't make any sense to tell people to leave the freeway early.
Buckeye would have been quite a jog south if they had already made it into western Phoenix. Especially since all the highways jogged north to Van Buren soon after, why not just put people onto Van Buren? It seems a bit early for the sort of whining you get now when you propose detour traffic through a new street (i.e. - Buckeye Road would have been accustomed to long-distance traffic, while Van Buren would have been mostly only local).

What would have been really interesting, and what I was partially hoping for, was that traffic was routed south on 51st all the way to Riggs, to bypass the city entirely. But that seems like a long shot.

I'll have to see if I can find the maps from that book. A bunch of pages ripped off as it deteriorated, but I think I still have them somewhere.

It is interesting to see that map though: I didn't realize most of the interchanges in what is now southern Tempe were built later on. I guess it makes sense: why spend money on interchanges every mile in such a rural area?
Title: Re: 1987 Phoenix, "To I-10 East" Exit
Post by: Max Rockatansky on July 14, 2016, 09:28:23 PM
Quote from: coatimundi on July 14, 2016, 04:05:45 PM
My thought is that the book took the text from one of the signs when 59th was the end, probably from an earlier edition, but the interchanges were catalogued when I-10 made it to 27th. It doesn't make any sense to tell people to leave the freeway early.
Buckeye would have been quite a jog south if they had already made it into western Phoenix. Especially since all the highways jogged north to Van Buren soon after, why not just put people onto Van Buren? It seems a bit early for the sort of whining you get now when you propose detour traffic through a new street (i.e. - Buckeye Road would have been accustomed to long-distance traffic, while Van Buren would have been mostly only local).

What would have been really interesting, and what I was partially hoping for, was that traffic was routed south on 51st all the way to Riggs, to bypass the city entirely. But that seems like a long shot.

I'll have to see if I can find the maps from that book. A bunch of pages ripped off as it deteriorated, but I think I still have them somewhere.

It is interesting to see that map though: I didn't realize most of the interchanges in what is now southern Tempe were built later on. I guess it makes sense: why spend money on interchanges every mile in such a rural area?

I know at some point right after most of the section of I-10 between Quartzsite and Buckeye was built that traffic was directed onto the Salome Highway near Tonopah to US 80 which of course becomes Buckeye road.  Given the Valley wasn't anywhere near as built up back in those days I think it's really possible there could have been a crazy southward jog to reach US 80.  I don't have any information on Van Buren but it wasn't intended volume really outside of downtown Phoenix....plus were talking about 1 mile difference.  I mean we're talking a pretty decent east jog from there on 59th to where US 80 would have swung north on 17th. As for Tempe back in the 70s it would have mostly been on the Salt River near the ASU campus.  I'm not sure when Guadalupe incorporated but it doesn't look like it is on that 1971 map.
Title: Re: 1987 Phoenix, "To I-10 East" Exit
Post by: coatimundi on July 16, 2016, 09:37:35 AM
The same book shows the I-17 Grand Avenue exit as, among others, "To Bus. I-10", referencing the business loop that was removed when I-10 was finally completed.
That's another mystery, since the business loop was no where near there, and there was a southbound-only McDowell exit at that time, meaning there was a chance to reach it later. I kinda wonder if that's the relic of the disconnect right there: I-17 southbound drivers were directed on Thomas to 27th, where the freeway began, and the book may be a misprint, instead meaning "To West I-10".