Flew out of Sky Harbor headed eastbound the other day. I had a really cool view of AZ 143 north of the Salt River, I used some old stock photos to cobble up a blog on Surewhynotnow:
https://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2019/01/arizona-state-route-143-hohokam.html
I always forget about the 143, even though I use it never really gave it much thought to how it came to be.
Do you know if it was originally planned to extend north of McDowell Rd? There remains that open space corridor along 48th St that has always looked like it was once right of way up to Indian School Road. I assume it was planned at one time but got pushback from the neighbors in the Arcadia area and was dropped and left as a "greenbelt". Never was able to confirm this though.
Why was only half a system interchange built between Loop 202 and AZ 143? Was it because 143 terminates just to the north at E. McConnell Road?
There's a dearth of room, and there's already connections for WB 202 to SB 143 and NB 143 to EB 202 to the southeast.
In 1985, there was consideration of extending the Hohokam Expressway north to Thomas Road. In 1987, the plans were downgraded to a limited-access parkway. Ultimately, those plans were abandoned. Please refer to Item 6 in the link below:
ftp://ftp.azmag.gov/Administration/Billboards/BB_1987-06-24_June-1987-RC-minutes.pdf
Quote from: Concrete Bob on January 23, 2019, 09:16:46 PM
In 1985, there was consideration of extending the Hohokam Expressway north to Thomas Road. In 1987, the plans were downgraded to a limited-access parkway. Ultimately, those plans were abandoned. Please refer to Item 6 in the link below:
ftp://ftp.azmag.gov/Administration/Billboards/BB_1987-06-24_June-1987-RC-minutes.pdf
Thank you! Also saw it referred to "deleting" the plan to extend it to Indian School. So it was at one time part of a plan.
Quote from: The Ghostbuster on January 23, 2019, 03:55:28 PM
Why was only half a system interchange built between Loop 202 and AZ 143? Was it because 143 terminates just to the north at E. McConnell Road?
As the 143 is currently built, any other connections would either be redundant or kinda pointless. WB 202 can access 143 through the Sky Harbor "stub" connection just 2 miles before. Same with NB to EB. Just take that stub connector just a mile south and it takes you right over to the EB 202 at Priest. Any kind of SB to EB connection would also be silly since the only traffic accessing it would be from McDowell Rd, so probably not worth the expense.
Quote from: Sonic99 on January 24, 2019, 10:27:21 PMAny kind of SB to EB connection would also be silly since the only traffic accessing it would be from McDowell Rd, so probably not worth the expense.
EB 202 can be accessed from McDowell Rd. and points north via 52nd St. There's an on-ramp for the EB 202 at 52nd & Van Buren Sts.
https://ibb.co/NncqHQ2
This is from the 2/13/85 issue of the Arizona Republic -- the HoHoKam would have tied into the Paradise Parkway.
Nice find !!
It appears as though a lot of the routes were still being studied and finalized roughly eight or nine months before the Maricopa County Fall (October?/November?) 1985 election for Proposition 300, that initiated the funding of the non-Interstate freeway portion of the Phoenix freeway system. By the looks of the Arizona Republic map, it appears as though the route would have tied into the original version of the Hohokam that was built in the late 1970s.
I wonder when Maricopa County planners decided to shift the path of the Hohokam Expressway to its current footprint. I would guess it was sometime before the Proposition 300 election.
It would have between February and September 1985. In the September 22 edition of the Republic, there is a graphic of the built and proposed freeways. In this snip, the proposed 143 and 202 resemble their current alignments.
https://ibb.co/PZqgj4n