South Mountain Freeway 35 percent done, on track to open next year

PHOENIX — The Arizona Department of Transportation said Wednesday that crews were making good progress on the South Mountain Freeway and it should open late next year.

ADOT said that Arizona’s largest single highway project is more than 35 percent completed. Work is currently underway in all but one section of the 22-mile stretch, with plans to expand construction soon.

So far, crews have installed eight miles of drainage pipe, moved 3.6 million cubic yards of dirt and used 2,900 tons of recycled steel.

Related: The dirty work of building the new South Mountain Freeway

This week, ADOT and the Connect 202 Partners, the group responsible for the design and construction of the freeway, detailed the construction plan for the first half of 2018.

Work will begin this spring on the 3-mile center segment that stretches between 51st Avenue and 32nd Lane. Other areas of construction in 2018 will include:

• The I-10 segment (I-10 Papago to Lower Buckeye Road)

• The Salt River segment (Lower Buckeye Rd. to 51st Avenue)

• The Pecos segment (32nd Lane to I-10 Maricopa)

First approved by Maricopa County in 1985 and again in 2004, the South Mountain Freeway will provide a long-planned link between the East and West valleys and will give relief to existing freeway corridors and local streets.