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I-10 Cotton Lane construction in 1978

Started by MarkF, July 13, 2016, 02:12:09 AM

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MarkF

I lived in Phoenix in the late 1970s, and took an occasional drive out to the west end of McDowell Rd to check out the I-10 construction.  Here's some photos I took of the Cotton Lane overpass being built, looking north.  This is now the current location of the end of loop 303.  Interesting, GSV (at the time of this post) looks to pre-date the 303 work:
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4605505,-112.4270104,3a,66.8y,2.75h,86.31t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s2DpBSujr89BBXo_IlyncAg!2e0

The overpass was built by shoring up the bottom with dirt, pouring the bridge, then digging it out.

April 1978: digging out the dirt support


May 1978: still removing the dirt support, I-10 was built as 2 lanes each direction


July 1978:  dirt support out, Cotton Road newly paved


February 1979: completed, not sure if I-10 was open yet at this time


Sonic99

That's awesome. And yeah, the GSV images are unbelievable when you look at what was once there just a few short years ago.

Honestly, I wish that I could go back to when I was a kid in the late 80's/early 90's with a current-day camera and just take pictures of the growth of the Phoenix freeway system.
If you used to draw freeways on your homework and got reprimanded by your Senior English teacher for doing so, you might be a road geek!

coatimundi

This is very cool. But what did they do with the I-10 mainlanes while this was being built? Were they between the piles of dirt?

I think that, what's more amazing, is that the Cotton Lane interchange wasn't updated from what's pictured until very recently. In fact, I believe that there was a bridge over a wash on I-10 just west of Cotton Lane that was the oldest bridge in the Arizona interstate system. Something like 1966.

Sonic99

Quote from: coatimundi on July 13, 2016, 03:26:02 AM
This is very cool. But what did they do with the I-10 mainlanes while this was being built? Were they between the piles of dirt?

I think that, what's more amazing, is that the Cotton Lane interchange wasn't updated from what's pictured until very recently. In fact, I believe that there was a bridge over a wash on I-10 just west of Cotton Lane that was the oldest bridge in the Arizona interstate system. Something like 1966.

I-10 didn't exist in the Phoenix area yet. US 80 was the primary route into the Valley all the way up through the late 70's and into the 80's when I-10 worked its way into the Valley from the west.
If you used to draw freeways on your homework and got reprimanded by your Senior English teacher for doing so, you might be a road geek!

pumpkineater2

Very interesting! I just drove through the loop 303 interchange less than an hour ago, and its amazing to see how much time changes things. I remember when it was just a simple diamond interchange.
Come ride with me to the distant shore...

Max Rockatansky

Just curious but do you have any photos of the dog track that's just off Cotton Lane?  I would love to at least see one photo of the place when it was actually open or not in a state of arrested desert decay.

MarkF

Quote from: Max Rockatansky on July 13, 2016, 11:16:25 PM
Just curious but do you have any photos of the dog track that's just off Cotton Lane?  I would love to at least see one photo of the place when it was actually open or not in a state of arrested desert decay.

Do you mean the Phoenix Trotting Park?  I remember wondering what that big building was, way out there by itself.  It was closed down by the time I moved there in 1977. I found a Wikipedia article about it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Trotting_Park

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: MarkF on July 14, 2016, 12:48:00 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on July 13, 2016, 11:16:25 PM
Just curious but do you have any photos of the dog track that's just off Cotton Lane?  I would love to at least see one photo of the place when it was actually open or not in a state of arrested desert decay.

Do you mean the Phoenix Trotting Park?  I remember wondering what that big building was, way out there by itself.  It was closed down by the time I moved there in 1977. I found a Wikipedia article about it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Trotting_Park

Indeed...that freakin thing is STILL there after all those years.  About the best I could ever find that was close to an images of the track being open was a post card that is on Yahoo images:


pumpkineater2

The story of that place is fascinating to me. Apparently it was open for only 2 years before being closed down due to there being poor access to the area and because of the harsh climate. I read that the windows were blown out in the 1990s by an explosion during the filming of a Charlie Sheen movie there. And to think that nowadays transcontinental Interstate 10 was built right next to it; I bet it would've saved this place if it was built a few decades earlier.
Come ride with me to the distant shore...

coatimundi

Quote from: pumpkineater2 on July 14, 2016, 01:32:54 AM
I read that the windows were blown out in the 1990s by an explosion during the filming of a Charlie Sheen movie there. And to think that nowadays transcontinental Interstate 10 was built right next to it; I bet it would've saved this place if it was built a few decades earlier.

That scene in the movie supposedly killed something like 100 pigeons. They didn't properly clear the place before they set the explosives off, and animal rights groups flipped out.
I always wanted to try to get in there, but I had heard they had a pretty militant caretaker that lived on site.

The dog track in Tucson will be going the same way very soon. Hopefully they'll raze it before it becomes infested with squatters though. It's in a horrible neighborhood and I don't see how they could possibly find another use for it.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: coatimundi on July 14, 2016, 02:22:27 AM
Quote from: pumpkineater2 on July 14, 2016, 01:32:54 AM
I read that the windows were blown out in the 1990s by an explosion during the filming of a Charlie Sheen movie there. And to think that nowadays transcontinental Interstate 10 was built right next to it; I bet it would've saved this place if it was built a few decades earlier.

That scene in the movie supposedly killed something like 100 pigeons. They didn't properly clear the place before they set the explosives off, and animal rights groups flipped out.
I always wanted to try to get in there, but I had heard they had a pretty militant caretaker that lived on site.

The dog track in Tucson will be going the same way very soon. Hopefully they'll raze it before it becomes infested with squatters though. It's in a horrible neighborhood and I don't see how they could possibly find another use for it.

The real weird part of the story is the owner of the property absolutely refusing to see the place for all those decades.  Supposedly the place is up for sale now, for what amount I'm not sure...but I got to imagine that's a pretty hot property given the location along the alignment of the 303.  I got to imagine some company looking to build a distribution center or shopping plaza is going to make an offer.

coatimundi

The land is attractive, but what's on it is not. It costs a lot of money to bulldoze something that size, and I recall them storing some old machinery on the land too, which may necessitate a cleanup (soil and groundwater remediation). There's still open land around it, so it's probably not the first choice unless they're offering it at a significant discount.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: coatimundi on July 14, 2016, 03:55:37 PM
The land is attractive, but what's on it is not. It costs a lot of money to bulldoze something that size, and I recall them storing some old machinery on the land too, which may necessitate a cleanup (soil and groundwater remediation). There's still open land around it, so it's probably not the first choice unless they're offering it at a significant discount.

Apparently the going rate for the property is 16.5 million.  I'm too far gone from the Valley to know if that is appropriate, a bargain or rip off but it sounds dubious given the demolition costs that get added to that total.  But hey I'm not going to complain about having a somewhat period and somewhat historic structure in a urban area that largely is absent of them.

mrsman

Quote from: Sonic99 on July 13, 2016, 03:43:55 AM
Quote from: coatimundi on July 13, 2016, 03:26:02 AM
This is very cool. But what did they do with the I-10 mainlanes while this was being built? Were they between the piles of dirt?

I think that, what's more amazing, is that the Cotton Lane interchange wasn't updated from what's pictured until very recently. In fact, I believe that there was a bridge over a wash on I-10 just west of Cotton Lane that was the oldest bridge in the Arizona interstate system. Something like 1966.

I-10 didn't exist in the Phoenix area yet. US 80 was the primary route into the Valley all the way up through the late 70's and into the 80's when I-10 worked its way into the Valley from the west.

Was US 80 busier than US 60?  I would think that US 60 would be a more direct routing to Los Angeles.

Avalanchez71

I think the old Kurt Russell movie Used Cars took place in Phoenix. They may very well have been talking about I-10 in the film.  I think it was a 1980 film.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: Avalanchez71 on August 01, 2016, 09:14:04 PM
I think the old Kurt Russell movie Used Cars took place in Phoenix. They may very well have been talking about I-10 in the film.  I think it was a 1980 film.

Mostly Mesa....which is of course the biggest suburb of Phoenix.

Max Rockatansky

#16
Quote from: mrsman on August 01, 2016, 09:07:34 PM
Quote from: Sonic99 on July 13, 2016, 03:43:55 AM
Quote from: coatimundi on July 13, 2016, 03:26:02 AM
This is very cool. But what did they do with the I-10 mainlanes while this was being built? Were they between the piles of dirt?

I think that, what's more amazing, is that the Cotton Lane interchange wasn't updated from what's pictured until very recently. In fact, I believe that there was a bridge over a wash on I-10 just west of Cotton Lane that was the oldest bridge in the Arizona interstate system. Something like 1966.


I-10 didn't exist in the Phoenix area yet. US 80 was the primary route into the Valley all the way up through the late 70's and into the 80's when I-10 worked its way into the Valley from the west.

Was US 80 busier than US 60?  I would think that US 60 would be a more direct routing to Los Angeles.

At one point before US 60 came west there was nothing but dirt tracts of road between Phoenix and Blythe.  You would have been well served to take US 80 to US 99 to get to Los Angeles.  Most people would have taken short cuts on what became AZ 86 (now I-10 between Tucson and the New Mexico state line) and AZ 84 (now I-8 and I-10 from Gila Bend to Casa adobes just north of Tucson) to cut out a ton of the distance US 80 would have required to loop down through Douglas and up through Phoenix.  Don't forget that US 60 was originally meant to be what became US 66 and the US 60 we know didn't come to Arizona or California until 1932.  There was MASSIVE public works projects that needed to be completed to make US 60 viable in Arizona like Salt River Canyon....in fact US 60 originally followed AZ 73's original route to San Carlos to reach Globe until the route through said canyon was built.  That section of AZ 73 largely is just chopped up dirt at best these days....that must have been one hell of an awful ride back in the 30s.

Anyways here is a couple highway maps of Arizona from Arizonaroads.com that show the progression of US 60 from nothing in 1927 to it's peak alignment by 1938:

https://www.arizonaroads.com/maps/index.html


Concrete Bob

I have a VHS copy of "Used Cars" and I remember Kurt Russell's character making reference to the car lot he wanted to start up being next to the  new "Crosstown Freeway" that was supposed to be built.  Given the 1980 release of the film, I-10/Papago would probably be the "Crosstown Freeway" in question.   

Avalanchez71

It is hard to believe that I-10 wasn't finished until well into the the 80's in the Pheonix area.  What was traffic like on the surface segments?

DJStephens

It was probably mostly on the older I-17 alignment to the south.   

coatimundi

Well, I-10 didn't even reach I-17 until the late 80's. In 1983, it was only in Goodyear. And in 1987, it was at 51st Ave.
I wasn't out there at that time, but those who I know who were talked about pretty excessive traffic on Grand Avenue. You have to remember that, before I-10 was completed, there was very little western development in the Valley of the Sun. Avondale, Buckeye and Goodyear all looked like Tolleson does today: nothing farming communities. You also should remember that I-8 was actually completed before the end of the 70's, meaning that there was already a route across Central Arizona without I-10 being finished through the West Valley.
The time before the Superstition Freeway/US 60 (SR 360 for a time) was completed was the real crunch. Tempe and Mesa were big towns even at that time, so you can only imagine what the traffic was like, all routed onto the few viable thoroughfares.

Max Rockatansky

#21
I moved to Phoenix in the 90s...so I-10 was there but a lot of the freeways weren't anywhere near complete.  It was bad enough even with AZ 51 was just a stub....I remember actually using the connected Northern Avenue quite frequently.  Scottsdale Road was four lanes before the 101 was finished and was miserable to drive on.  Basically if you wanted to get to Tempe you had to take your pick of Scottsdale, Hayden or Pima....I seem to remember Hayden was always the best option.  US 60 was really the only corridor that was kind of similar to how it is today....the 202 has light traffic through Mesa.  Hell even US 93 was for the most part only two-lanes and was one of the worst drives in the entire country if you wanted to get to Vegas...the only reprieve was going over the Hoover Dam.  Also AZ 87 I remember was going through an upgrade process to a four lane expressway from Fountain Hills to Payson.  I want to say that AZ 85 was almost entirely two-lane to Gila Bend but it was the time where it routed to I-10 instead of east along Old US 80/MC 85.

qguy

In 1987 I drove from Alamogordo, NM (where I was stationed at Holloman AFB at the time) to LA and back via I-10. Being forced off the incomplete I-10 to drive along congested surface streets was very frustrating. Of course, I knew about it ahead-of-time, but I could hardly believe that the highway was still not finished that late in the game.

Of course, I had earlier lived in Philadelphia, where I-95 wasn't complete in the vicinity of Philadelphia International Airport until around 1985, and in one other area until about that time, so who was I to cast stones?

coatimundi

Quote from: qguy on August 03, 2016, 08:19:48 AM
Of course, I had earlier lived in Philadelphia, where I-95 wasn't complete in the vicinity of Philadelphia International Airport until around 1985, and in one other area until about that time, so who was I to cast stones?

But both 295 and the NJ Turnpike were completed well before that, so there was an easy alternative for thru traffic. Plus, since 95 as a number was discontiguous just north of there anyway, I wouldn't think anyone was using 95 solely.

Just looking at a map of the US at that time, it'd be pretty easy to miss that break in Phoenix and be surprised by it when you got there. My understanding was that the detour was well-signed, but I know what those streets look like and can only imagine what they looked like with both commuter and thru traffic on them.

707

Quote from: coatimundi on July 13, 2016, 03:26:02 AM
This is very cool. But what did they do with the I-10 mainlanes while this was being built? Were they between the piles of dirt?

I think that, what's more amazing, is that the Cotton Lane interchange wasn't updated from what's pictured until very recently. In fact, I believe that there was a bridge over a wash on I-10 just west of Cotton Lane that was the oldest bridge in the Arizona interstate system. Something like 1966.

Perhaps it was one of the oldest, but the oldest bridge in Arizona's Interstate system was an old SR 86 bridge built in the 1930s near San Simon and the New Mexico border on I-10. I believe the time frame is between 1936 and 1938. For those unfamiliar, SR 86 and NM 14 made up what is now I-10 from Roadforks to Benson as a bypass to US 80's Douglas "loop". On a slightly related note, I find it strange that while US 66 was majorly re-routed away from its 1920s era loops in both NM and AZ, US 80 stayed its original course until the very end. But I digress to stay on topic. Up until more recently, bridges stood on I-10 between Benson and Tucson which dated to 1954-1955, originally built for the US 80 bypass of the Marsh Station Loop, but torn down in the ongoing construction project to modernize I-10 east of Tucson. As far as I know, the ex-SR 86 bridge may still exist. It's not an impressive structure, in fact, its fairly modest, but its age is nonetheless amazing considering Arizona's approach on old pre-Interstate bridges used on Interstates. Then again, it makes sense, considering I-10 from Benson to New Mexico is not a high priority for ADOT.



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