State Route 210 - Barraza-Aviation Parkway

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Arizona State Route 210 is Aviation Parkway, which connects Downtown Tucson at Broadway Boulevard with Davis-Monthan Air Force Base at Golf Links Road. The controlled access expressway is 3.40 miles in length.

Added to the state highway system in 1983, construction on the initial 2.3 mile section of State Route 210 got underway in January 1992. This section opened intermittently during a six month period leading to January 11, 1995, when the link from Alvernon Way west to S Kino Parkway fully opened to traffic.> Work on the remaining 1.7 mile long stretch commenced in March 1995 and was completed in 1998. First planned by city officials in 1980, the expressway was extremely controversial, resulting in numerous delays to construction. The $150 million project was eventually turned over to the state after a route was selected in 1985.1

The original plans for SR 210 were to connect Interstate 10 with Downtown Tucson as a freeway. These plans were abandoned by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) in 2001, and the City of Tucson was tasked to construct the remainder of Barraza-Aviation Parkway between Interstate 10 and Broadway Boulevard. Plans moved slowly on the final link, and the current plan received unanimous approval by the Tucson City Council on July 8, 2008.

Split into three phases, the Downtown Links Corridor Project is a 1.3 mile long multi-model corridor costing $76.1 million. Phase I construction for the 8th Street Drainage Improvements was completed in May 2012. Phase II work rebuilding St. Mary's Road into a divided boulevard from I-10 to Church Avenue was finished in May 2014. Phase III realigns 6th Street onto an overpass over the Union Pacific Railroad and 9th Avenue. The rebuilt roadway for 6th Street ties into an extension of Maclovio Barraza Parkway northwest from the end of SR 210 at Broadway Boulevard.2

Construction on the Downtown Links Phase III Improvement Project commenced in August 2020. Work runs through mid 2023.3

SR 210 is named for Maclovo Barraza, who was a union leader in the Copper mines around Tucson. The eastern portion of SR 210 beyond Kino Parkway replaced Aviation Highway, which paralleled the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.


Sources:
  1. "Aviation Parkway cleared for takeoff: 2.3-mile strip opens; 1.7 more miles in '97." Arizona Daily Star, The (Tucson, AZ), January 14, 1995.
  2. Downtown Links Corridor Project - January 2017 Update. Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood, web page.
  3. Downtown Links Project Update. City of Tucson, web site.

    Connect with:
    Kino Parkway - Cancelled Interstate 710

    Page Updated 04-28-2022.

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