The Arizona Dept. of Transportation will continue or begin several Phoenix-area projects in 2024, including two new widening contracts along separate sections of the heavily traveled Loop 101.

“We’ve been very busy in Arizona, even during the pandemic years (and) this year is no different," says Greg Byres, state engineer for ADOT, noting "several large freeway projects in the Phoenix area.”

The biggest of these is the $776-million Interstate 10 Broadway Curve Improvement project between the I-17 "split" and Loop 202 in Chandler. Representing ADOT’s largest freeway reconstruction project to date, the project is being led by Broadway Curve Contractors, a joint venture of Pulice Construction, Scottsdale, Ariz., FNF Construction, Tempe, Ariz., and Flatiron Constructors, Broomfield, Colo. Work started in fall 2021 and is slated for completion near the end of 2024.

Areas that work crews will be focusing on this year include finishing elevated ramps providing direct connections between I-10 and State Route 143, as well as new mainline lanes, and the completion of new outside “local lanes” that will carry traffic exiting or entering the freeway in areas between Baseline Road and 40th Street. The project improves travel on 11 miles of one of the Phoenix area’s busiest stretches of freeway, which handles more than 300,000 vehicle trips per day.

“It’s been remarkable to watch the new lanes and flyover ramps take shape as the project team heads into the homestretch,” says Doug Nintzel, ADOT spokesman. “The joint venture keeps meeting the challenge of overhauling a freeway while keeping traffic moving.”

Byres adds: “Finishing the massive I-10 widening around the Broadway Curve near Sky Harbor Airport will make a huge difference for commuters. They have not yet experienced all the benefits the new lanes and flyover ramps will provide, but this year’s hard work will pay travel dividends soon.”

Loop 101 Improvement Project

Last month, FNF Construction, Tempe, began work on the $108-million, 4.5-mile-long project—located in Scottsdale between Shea Boulevard and Princess Drive/Pima Road—that will add general purpose lanes in each direction. At completion, Loop 101 will have four regular lanes and the existing HOV lanes in each direction.

Crews will also convert the Loop 101 interchange at Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard into a diamond configuration to improve traffic flow. The project is scheduled for completion by first quarter 2026.

“This will complete a series of projects to add much-needed traffic capacity to Loop 101 between Interstate 17 in north Phoenix and Loop 202 in Tempe,” says ADOT's Nintzel. “This stretch is critical to providing room for growing traffic needs in the surrounding residential and business areas.”

I-17 Improvement Project 

ADOT's $522-million, 23-mile-long I-17 Improvement Project, located between Anthem Way and Sunset Point, north of Phoenix, is being led by the Kiewit-Fann Joint Venture, which began work on the project in fall 2022. Being delivered by a design-build-operate-maintain contract, the project will add third lanes in each direction along I-17 between Anthem Way and Black Canyon City, as well as an 8-mile flex lanes system north of Black Canyon City. The project is scheduled for completion by late 2025.

“It’s an incredible work zone stretching more than 20 miles," says Byres with ADOT. "When crews finish all the work toward the end of 2025, the added capacity will improve the state’s ability to move people and products between metro Phoenix and northern Arizona communities, including Prescott and Flagstaff."

Other Projects

Additionally, ADOT expects to award a contract by this summer for the Loop 101 Improvement Project between I-17 and 75th Avenue. Estimated to be constructed over a two-year period, the project will add a lane in each direction to the west of I-17, along with improvements at the 75th Avenue interchange.

Meanwhile, Pulice Construction, Scottsdale, is expected to begin construction this spring on the $51-million I-10 Gila River Bridges Project, which will reconstruct the outdated I-10 bridges crossing the Gila River. Completion is anticipated by the third quarter of 2026.