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Author Topic: Phoenix Area Highways  (Read 175240 times)

compdude787

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #325 on: October 24, 2019, 03:35:58 PM »

The Town of Gilbert now seems to be using FYG for its Pedestrian Crossing signs at least in RRFB installations.  I'm not sure it is exclusively used for new RRFB installations or if it is applied universally for all new installations.

Can you explain what those acronyms mean?

Zonie

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #326 on: October 24, 2019, 06:27:11 PM »

FYG = Fluorescent Yellow-Green


RRFB = Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon 
https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersection/conventional/unsignalized/tech_sum/fhwasa09009/
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Roadwarriors79

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #327 on: November 08, 2019, 07:28:29 PM »

Saw in a Facebook post today (Friends of the South Mountain Freeway) that there's a tentative date of Sat, Dec 21 for a freeway opening celebration. The freeway will open to vehicle traffic by Mon, Dec 23 or Tue, Dec 24.
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Concrete Bob

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #328 on: November 09, 2019, 01:28:24 AM »

That will be one hell of a great Christmas gift to the residents of Maricopa County.  It will take a lot of pressure off of I-10 and I-17, and allow through drivers to bypass Downtown Phoenix.  When freeways open up in Phoenix, there are a lot of freeway opening celebrations, and they are well-attended by the locals.  Freeway-wise, today's Phoenix is a whole lot different from the Phoenix of the 1970s, and I find the evolution and development of Phoenix' freeways amazing, considering how late they got started on their system.   
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Roadwarriors79

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #329 on: November 10, 2019, 11:00:06 AM »

So it looks like from ADOT's Loop 202 website, "late 2019 opening" means the mainline freeway will be open to traffic, but certain interchanges, frontage roads, and cross streets won't be fully complete until 2020. For anyone in the Ahwatukee area, next weekend a full weekend closure is planned for the Pecos section, and the freeway section from 17th Ave to 40th St will be open by Mon, Nov 18.
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DJStephens

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #330 on: November 10, 2019, 11:40:27 AM »

Does this include the entire mainline??  Or just the Pecos Segment??  Am of the opinion they were still working on the cut across South Mountain.   
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Roadwarriors79

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #331 on: November 10, 2019, 01:05:06 PM »

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Kniwt

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #332 on: November 16, 2019, 11:49:39 AM »

The Arizona Republic reports that plans are underway for a five-mile extension of the (currently very short) AZ 24 freeway to open in 2022.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2019/11/16/arizona-department-transportation-add-5-miles-state-route-24/4194684002/

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The Arizona Department of Transportation plans to extend state Route 24 in southeast Mesa, given its proximity to the growing Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport region.

The Gateway Freeway that opened between Loop 202 and Ellsworth Road in 2014 is currently just one mile, making it the Valley's shortest freeway.

The plan is to add another five miles to Ironwood Drive in Pinal County.

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Roadwarriors79

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #333 on: November 16, 2019, 12:26:10 PM »

Does this include the entire mainline??  Or just the Pecos Segment??  Am of the opinion they were still working on the cut across South Mountain.

The Pecos segment should be open by Monday. It will be two lanes in each direction with a lower speed limit until the entire freeway opens in late December.
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Bobby5280

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #334 on: November 16, 2019, 12:52:14 PM »

Quote from: Kniwt
The Arizona Republic reports that plans are underway for a five-mile extension of the (currently very short) AZ 24 freeway to open in 2022.



This diagram appears to show the freeway still ending at Ellsworth Road (with a newly completed full freeway exit) and freeway-ready frontage roads built out to Ironwood Drive. The article states ADOT is looking at extending the freeway corridor farther South to stay ahead of development in the region. There is no funding available for an extension past Ironwood Drive. If ADOT is going to extend the highway farther, why not extend it West to US-60 just South of Gold Canyon? That would make more sense. I get it that Queen Creek and San Tran Valley is growing, but that's going to be yet another freeway corridor need, wrapping around to Florence, Coolidge and perhaps back West to Casa Grande.
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splashflash

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #335 on: November 16, 2019, 07:00:59 PM »

Quote from: Kniwt
The Arizona Republic reports that plans are underway for a five-mile extension of the (currently very short) AZ 24 freeway to open in 2022.



This diagram appears to show the freeway still ending at Ellsworth Road (with a newly completed full freeway exit) and freeway-ready frontage roads built out to Ironwood Drive. The article states ADOT is looking at extending the freeway corridor farther South to stay ahead of development in the region. There is no funding available for an extension past Ironwood Drive. If ADOT is going to extend the highway farther, why not extend it West to US-60 just South of Gold Canyon? That would make more sense. I get it that Queen Creek and San Tran Valley is growing, but that's going to be yet another freeway corridor need, wrapping around to Florence, Coolidge and perhaps back West to Casa Grande.

Well, there is a nice map in this study showing that 24 would link to a new north-south freeway, which itself would link to US60.  A direct connection beyond the north-south freeway to US60 would seem logical...
From Reply#312 from Road Warrior, earlier in this thread.
https://azdot.gov/adot-news/draft-north-south-corridor-environmental-impact-statement-available-review?fbclid=IwAR3U8OjpHEehLDvoEVkoQjYJ-KpriTGwNI6RXJb0iIN98sOp4URtA3p7wu0
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KeithE4Phx

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #336 on: November 16, 2019, 08:37:21 PM »

Well, there is a nice map in this study showing that 24 would link to a new north-south freeway, which itself would link to US60.  A direct connection beyond the north-south freeway to US60 would seem logical...
From Reply#312 from Road Warrior, earlier in this thread.
https://azdot.gov/adot-news/draft-north-south-corridor-environmental-impact-statement-available-review?fbclid=IwAR3U8OjpHEehLDvoEVkoQjYJ-KpriTGwNI6RXJb0iIN98sOp4URtA3p7wu0

Might as well start building two more lanes in each direction to I-10, between the the junction with AZ 87 and at least downtown Tucson, right now.  The added traffic to and from from the east valley will make the 10 an even bigger nightmare than it already is.
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Bobby5280

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #337 on: November 16, 2019, 10:00:07 PM »

ADOT is going to have to look at expanding AZ-79 between Florence and Oracle Junction, along with potentially more expansion of I-10 itself.

I haven't heard before about the North-South Freeway Corridor proposal from Apache Junction down to Eloy and I-10. The idea definitely makes sense considering how communities Southeast of Phoenix are growing rapidly. Still I think it would be bad to simply end an extension of the AZ-24 freeway at the North-South corridor. If the AZ-24 freeway was pushed farther directly East to US-60 the end result might help relieve some congestion along the US-60 freeway in Mesa and Tempe. US-60 traffic coming from places like Globe heading to points well West of downtown Phoenix would be able to use AZ-24 and its connection to the AZ-202 loop to bypass the downtown area.

Whatever ADOT chooses to do, they better start trying to secure ROW ASAP. These big subdivisions and entire "planned communities" can gobble up many thousands upon thousands of acres worth of real estate in giant chunks all at once. If it were up to me I'd build a single two lane road along the edge of the proposed corridor and reserve 300'-450' off to the left or right of it. The initial 2 lane route could either be one half of a frontage road pair. But frontage roads aren't needed everywhere. So the road could be Super 2 in other spots.
« Last Edit: November 17, 2019, 01:29:55 PM by Bobby5280 »
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Verlanka

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #338 on: November 17, 2019, 05:09:00 AM »

Well, there is a nice map in this study showing that 24 would link to a new north-south freeway, which itself would link to US60.  A direct connection beyond the north-south freeway to US60 would seem logical...
From Reply#312 from Road Warrior, earlier in this thread.
https://azdot.gov/adot-news/draft-north-south-corridor-environmental-impact-statement-available-review?fbclid=IwAR3U8OjpHEehLDvoEVkoQjYJ-KpriTGwNI6RXJb0iIN98sOp4URtA3p7wu0

Might as well start building two more lanes in each direction to I-10, between the the junction with AZ 87 and at least downtown Tucson, right now.  The added traffic to and from from the east valley will make the 10 an even bigger nightmare than it already is.
If this keeps up, they might as well make I-10 twelve lanes in each direction between Tucson and Phoenix.
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Bobby5280

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #339 on: November 17, 2019, 01:41:23 PM »

I think one of the purposes of Interstate 11 concepts past Phoenix through Tucson is to take some of the load off I-10. Unfortunately the routing is West of I-10 and doesn't serve all the communities to the East of I-10.
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Roadwarriors79

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #340 on: November 19, 2019, 03:25:31 PM »

Some drone footage of the Loop 202 (Pecos segment) between I-10 and 17th Ave:

« Last Edit: November 19, 2019, 03:28:28 PM by Roadwarriors79 »
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CtrlAltDel

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #341 on: November 19, 2019, 08:22:47 PM »

There's some "interesting" driving in that video, especially at 1:53 and 2:56. I suppose they could be contractors, though.
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Roadwarriors79

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #342 on: November 20, 2019, 06:06:02 AM »

There's some "interesting" driving in that video, especially at 1:53 and 2:56. I suppose they could be contractors, though.

Some footage might have been mixed with the "pre-opening" footage from the weekend. There's a video of the area during the past weekend closure:

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Kniwt

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #343 on: November 22, 2019, 06:23:01 PM »

The Arizona Republic reports that expansion of I-10 at the Broadway Curve will start in either late 2020 or early 2021 and continue until 2024:
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe-traffic/2019/11/22/adot-proposes-1-10-improvements-phoenix-chandler/4245450002/

Quote
Proposed improvements to one of metro Phoenix's busiest stretches of Interstate 10 could ease rush hour commutes in the coming years.

The Arizona Department of Transportation has been studying improvements to 11 miles of I-10 between the Interstate 17 split near Sky Harbor Airport and Loop 202 in Chandler, known as the Broadway Curve.

That stretch of the freeway has seen increased traffic in recent years, especially during morning and evening commutes, ADOT said.

An average of 287,000 vehicles traveled daily on I-10 in the area west of Arizona 143 in 2018.



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DJStephens

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #344 on: November 22, 2019, 10:28:44 PM »

Pretty amazing, if they could pull that off.  20 lanes.  Including the C/D roads.   Can only dream of something a fraction of that, in backward New Mexico.   
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Max Rockatansky

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #345 on: November 22, 2019, 11:00:45 PM »

That section of I-10 at the Broadway Curve could have used an upgrade like that a decade ago.  I don't recall a time when the I-10/US 60 junction wasn't a traffic nightmare during daylight hours. 
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DJStephens

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #346 on: November 24, 2019, 01:08:40 PM »

Definitely needed.  There is no coherent Frontage or C/D roads in this area.   This proposal appears to rectify that.   Of course, nothing of this magnitude or scope is needed in New Mexico either, due to fairly low population and business activity.   I-25 S of the Big I though, should have been trenched, with C/D roads added at the same time as the Big I project.  Instead, quite a bit was wasted humping up, to connect to a late fifties elevated section.   
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Kniwt

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #347 on: November 25, 2019, 02:05:21 PM »

The Associated Press reports that Phoenix will shut off its red-light and photo-radar enforcement cameras.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-traffic/2019/11/23/phoenix-stop-using-red-light-speed-enforcement-cameras/4279975002/

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PHOENIX – The city will no longer use red-light and speed-enforcement cameras at intersections starting with the new year.

A proposal to extend the contract for the cameras beyond Jan. 1 failed by a 4-5 City Council vote this week.

Councilman Michael Nowakowski told KJZZ radio he voted Wednesday against the extension because city staff never supplied him with the information he requested months ago.

Phoenix currently has fixed red-light cameras at 12 intersections in addition to speed-enforcement units that can be moved around school zones.
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Plutonic Panda

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #348 on: November 25, 2019, 02:22:02 PM »

This is great news! Hopefully other cities and states follow suit.
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21stCenturyRoad

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Re: Phoenix Area Highways
« Reply #349 on: November 26, 2019, 02:20:36 PM »

Does anyone know why AZ 303 begins with Mile 104? I’m aware of Arizona’s method of mileage starting points, but I can’t find out how they came up with Mile 104 as a starting point.
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