HikeArizona.COM

The westbound stretch of US 60 (Superstition Freeway) in Tempe will be closed this weekend (July 13-16) as part of an ongoing safety project designed to improve traffic flow and reduce crashes between Rural Road and the Interstate 10 interchange, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Westbound US 60 will be closed between Loop 101 and I-10 from 9 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday, July 16, for lane striping, sign changes and other improvements. The westbound US 60 on-ramp at Dobson Road will be closed. The eastbound I-10 left two lanes between Broadway Road and US 60, eastbound off-ramp at Baseline Road and eastbound HOV-lane ramp between I-10 and eastbound US 60 also will be closed.

Yikes! That should gum up the surface roads a bit.

I drive that stretch every day. You would not believe the amount of accidents that occur there. I always wondered if Tempe FD just staged an engine on the on-ramp to the 60 WB at Mill. Its literally every day.

Most of you will not remember but the bottle neck on that stretch of the Freeway was caused by the City of Tempe refusing to work with ADOT so that additional land could be acquired to provide more lanes of traffic. This was many years ago and the public has had to pay the price with their insurance, limbs and sometimes their lives. I do not remember who the Mayor of Tempe was at that time but he it was who refused to cooperate all for the sake of a few citizens homes bordering the then freeway rightaway.

I believe it was Hallman who was against adding WB US60 lanes without also constructing more I-10 lanes to accept the wider 60 *. As we can see, he was/is correct. This ADOT gyration is merely another 'treat the symptom, not the disease' move. Akin to those white, plastic posts to delineate the I-10 E ramp lane.
As a 34 year Tempe local I would argue that he was the brightest Mayor Tempe has ever had in that time, as well as being a fiscal conservative. Head-and-shoulders above H. Mitchell and Guiliano, his predecessors.
* https://tucson.com/news/opinion/editori ... 82707.html

ADOT has been dinking with this issue for YEARS...https://tucson.com/news/opinion/editori ... 82707.html and they DO have the money http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/news/b ... 5a916.html

So apparently they made the ramp to east(south)bound I-10 two lanes. So now (left to right as traffic moves) the HOV lane goes to PHX, the next lane goes to Tucson, the next lane splits allowing cars to go to either Tucson or PHX, the next two go to PHX, and the far right exits at Priest.

The ramp isn't any wider, so the two lanes that exit to Tucson have zero shoulder on either side in order to accommodate two lanes where there previously was only one. It will be interesting to see if there's any improvement in the rush hour traffic flows.

The two times I've driven it now, traffic has been slower due to both lanes being right up against the concrete barrier. Like every single highway in any east coast city that apparently people here are scared of!

One area in Tempe was a very large prehistoric village site, once the 20th century development was vacated the area was excavated for study prior to freeway construction.

Comments close April 1st (No foolin')

Comment form link > https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZG8N3XG

The Arizona Department of Transportation, in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration and the Maricopa Association of Governments, is studying and designing preliminary concepts for improvements to the I-10 Broadway Curve area between I-17 (Split) and Loop 202 (Santan Freeway). The study team is conducting an Environmental Assessment in advance of making proposed improvements.

Proposed improvements include: adding general purpose and high occupancy vehicle lanes; adding a collector-distributor road system; substantially modifying the I-10/State Route 143/Broadway Road connections and the I-10/US 60 (Superstition Freeway) connection; improving drainage; constructing bridges; improving the Intelligent Transportation Systems facilities; building retaining and sound walls and pedestrian bridge crossings; utility relocations; and other related work.

chumley wrote:the two lanes that exit to Tucson have zero shoulder on either side in order to accommodate two lanes where there previously was only one

I drive that way once or twice a week, entering the 60 westbound at Rural, and it seems like a huge improvement to me to not have to cross quite as many lanes of traffic to get to the lane (now lanes) designated to exit to 10 east.

When it was only one lane, it was often at a dead stop long before the ramp, which meant going “left lane fast” with traffic and then having to stop abruptly once I got to that lane - as long as I got over fast enough to catch the end of it, which meant snarling up all the lanes of traffic trying to continue onto 10 west. I greatly prefer this change, and the lack of shoulder on the overpass doesn’t seem to be a problem.