Arizona State Route 202
| State Loop 202 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by ADOT | ||||
| Length: | 55.00 mi[1] (88.51 km) | |||
| Existed: | 1990 – present | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| Beltway around Mesa | ||||
| CCW end: | ||||
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| CW end: | ||||
| Location | ||||
| Counties: | Maricopa | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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State Route 202, or Loop 202, (spoken as two-oh-two) is the beltway looping around the eastern Phoenix metropolitan area of central Arizona. It traverses the cities of Phoenix (eastern), Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, and Gilbert, making it very vital to the metropolitan area freeway system.
Contents
Route description[edit]
The route currently begins at the Mini Stack interchange with Interstate 10 (I-10) and State Route 51 (SR 51) in Phoenix, and ends at I-10 near Ahwatukee.
When fully complete, plans call for Loop 202 to consist of three sections. Two of these, the Red Mountain Freeway and the Santan Freeway, have been fully completed.
Red Mountain Freeway[edit]
The first section of Loop 202 to open was the Red Mountain Freeway. It runs from the I-10/SR 51 Mini Stack interchange to US Route 60 (US 60). It passes over the Salt River and through Tempe and Mesa en route, with an interchange with Loop 101 in Tempe. The final segment of the freeway from Power Road to University Drive opened on July 21, 2008.[2] This opening marked the completion of the original Regional Freeway System as approved by Maricopa County voters in 1985 by Proposition 300.[3]
In 2006, this portion of Loop 202 was used to portray a Saudi Arabian superhighway in the 2007 film, The Kingdom. Filming also took place at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and the Arizona State University Polytechnic Campus. The city of Mesa received $40,000 for the use of the freeway from NBC Universal.[4]
As of October 2012, HOV lanes on the Red Mountain section run from I-10/SR 51 to Gilbert Road. HOV lanes are under construction from Gilbert Road to Broadway Road. HOV lanes are planned to extend to US 60 in Mesa, eventually tying into planned HOV lanes on the Santan Freeway.
Santan Freeway[edit]
Completed in 2006,[5] the Santan Freeway serves the southeast valley cities of Chandler, Gilbert, and Mesa. It provides access to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, the former Williams Air Force Base. Beginning at the SuperRedTan interchange with US 60 in Mesa, the freeway runs south and turns westward in Gilbert near the airport. A few miles later the Santan is running in Chandler, where it has a junction with Loop 101 in the vicinity of the Chandler Fashion Center. Following this interchange, the Santan Freeway section of Loop 202 encounters its terminus at a stack interchange with I-10 near Ahwatukee.[6]
The Santan section has HOV lanes between I-10/Pecos Rd and Gilbert Rd. Plans call for HOV lanes to extend to US 60 and planned HOV lanes on the Red Mountain section.
Future: South Mountain Freeway[edit]
The third segment of the South Mountain Freeway received final approval from the Federal Highway Administration, on March 10, 2015, with construction scheduled for completion as early as 2019.[7][8]
Before that it was, and remains, the most controversial[9] segment of the Loop 202 partial beltway. Construction was delayed due to tension between three groups: regional transportation planners, who insisted that the freeway is necessary to ensure smooth traffic flow in the coming decades;[10] residents of the adjacent Ahwatukee community, who could lose 120 homes to eminent domain depending on the road's final alignment; and leaders and residents of the adjoining Gila River Indian Community (GRIC), who have oscillated between opposing and supporting the freeway in recent years.[11]
The South Mountain Freeway has two distinct segments: the "eastern segment" that straddles the Ahwatukee-GRIC border and the "western segment" that will parallel 59th Avenue through the southwest Phoenix community of Laveen. Together, these segments would form a 21.9-mile bypass around Downtown Phoenix, linking the metropolitan area's southwestern and southeastern suburbs. The freeway as currently approved would begin at the existing four-level symmetrical stack interchange between I-10 and the Santan Freeway on the Chandler-Ahwatukee border and terminate at I-10 and 59th Avenue west of Downtown Phoenix.[12]
The specific alignment of the freeway has been revised repeatedly since 1985, when Maricopa County voters originally approved its construction as part of the regional highway network envisioned under Proposition 300.[13] In 1988, the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG), the region's transportation planning agency, suggested an alignment of the freeway's western segment along 55th Avenue and an alignment of the eastern segment along Pecos Road.[14] A federal study in 2001 required ADOT to reexamine those suggestions, and the task of recommending the final alignment fell to a Citizen's Advisory Team formed in 2002. In April 2006, that panel released their final recommendations to route the western portion of the freeway four miles further west to connect with Loop 101, and to reject the proposed alignment of the eastern portion along Pecos Road, suggesting that the latter be built on Gila River Indian Community land instead.[15][16] Two months later, ADOT overruled the panel's suggestion for the western segment and opted for the current 59th Avenue alignment instead.[14]
In February 2012, a non-binding referendum was held in the Gila River Indian Community on whether the eastern portion of the freeway should be built on community land several miles south of Pecos Road. Options in the referendum were to build on community land, off community land, or not at all. The "no build" option won a plurality of votes, receiving 720 votes out of a total 1,481 cast.[17] MAG sent out a press release soon after making it clear that construction of the freeway would move forward as planned along the Pecos Road alignment.[10] Expecting this outcome, MAG and ADOT had previously (in 2010) shrunk the freeway's footprint from 10 lanes to eight to minimize its impact on Ahwatukee.[18] Fearing the worst possible outcome of the freeway being built without exits onto community land (as would be the case with the Pecos Road alignment), Gila River Indian Community residents quickly formulated plans for a new referendum that would exclude the "no build" option, leaving only "yes on Gila River or no on Gila River."[19] The tribal government rejected this proposal in July 2013.[20]
As late as September 2013, the freeway still faced active opposition. A non-profit group called the Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment filed a civil-rights complaint with ADOT in July, claiming the freeway would disproportionately and adversely affect tribe members. A freeway opposition group called Protecting Arizona's Resources and Children planned an environmental lawsuit.[21] And the Environmental Protection Agency in August 2013 raised several objections to the state's 12-year, $21 million draft environmental impact statement that had deemed construction of the freeway to be more beneficial to the environment, by improving traffic flow and thus reducing pollution, than building no freeway at all. The EPA claimed that the statement contained overly optimistic traffic projections, did not sufficiently address air quality concerns, and could harm neighboring communities and environmental resources.[22]
In March 2015, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued a Record of Decision approving the project and selecting a build alternative. ADOT immediately thereafter commenced right-of-way acquisition and the procurement of final design and construction services in the form of a design-build-maintain contractor or “developer.” The developer will be selected at the end of 2015 and freeway construction will begin in early 2016, with the Chandler Boulevard extension project to facilitate local access beginning in summer 2015. The freeway is planned to be open to traffic in late 2019 or early 2020. [23] However, new lawsuits in June 2015 from the group Protecting Arizona's Resources and Children, the Sierra Club, and the Gila River Indian Community threaten to delay the freeway's construction.[24][25]
On August 26, 2015, ADOT started demolition of the first houses along the route for the South Mountain Freeway.[26]
Exit list[edit]
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This section contains a table that is missing mileposts for one or more junctions. Please help by adding the missing mileposts. |
The entire route is in Maricopa County.
| Location | mi[1] | km | Exit | Destinations | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenix | 0.00 | 0.00 | — | Exit 147A on I-10 | ||
| 0.00 | 0.00 | 1A | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance | |||
| – | HOV access only; exit 147C on I-10; westbound exit and eastbound entrance |
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| 0.94 | 1.51 | 1B | 24th Street | |||
| 1.98 | 3.19 | 1C | 32nd Street | |||
| 2.72 | 4.38 | 2 | 40th Street / 44th Street | |||
| 3.52 | 5.66 | 3 | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | |||
| 4.11 | 6.61 | 4 | 52nd Street / Van Buren Street | |||
| Tempe | 5.37 | 8.64 | 5 | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance; access via unsigned SR 202 Spur |
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| 6.41 | 10.32 | 6 | Priest Drive / Center Parkway | |||
| 7.77 | 12.50 | 7 | Scottsdale Road north / Rural Road south – Arizona State University | |||
| 8.70 | 14.00 | 8 | McClintock Drive | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | ||
| Tempe–Mesa line | 9.62 | 15.48 | 9 | |||
| Mesa | 10.96 | 17.64 | 10 | Dobson Road | ||
| 11.85 | 19.07 | 11 | Alma School Road | |||
| 12.69 | 20.42 | 12 | McKellips Road | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | ||
| 13.32 | 21.44 | 13 | ||||
| 16.30 | 26.23 | 16 | Gilbert Road | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | ||
| 17.26 | 27.78 | 17 | McDowell Road | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance | ||
| 19.12 | 30.77 | 19 | Val Vista Drive | |||
| 20.11 | 32.36 | 20 | Greenfield Road | |||
| 21.32 | 34.31 | 21 | ||||
| 22.56 | 36.31 | 22 | Recker Road | |||
| 23.18 | 37.30 | 23A | Power Road | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | ||
| 23B | McDowell Road to Power Road | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||||
| 25 | McKellips Road | |||||
| 26 | Brown Road | |||||
| 27 | University Drive | |||||
| 28 | Broadway Road | |||||
| 30.14 | 48.51 | 30 | SuperRedTan Interchange; split into as exits 30A (east) and 30B (west) |
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| 30.14 | 48.51 | Red Mountain Freeway becomes the Santan Freeway | ||||
| 31.17 | 50.16 | 31 | Baseline Road | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
| 32.29 | 51.97 | 32 | Guadalupe Road | |||
| 33.88 | 54.52 | 33 | Elliot Road | |||
| 34.65 | 55.76 | 34A | To Ellsworth Road; western terminus of SR 24 | |||
| 34.65 | 55.76 | 34B | ||||
| Gilbert | 36.66 | 59.00 | 36 | Also serves ASU Polytechnic Campus | ||
| 38.85 | 62.52 | 38 | Higley Road | |||
| 40.67 | 65.45 | 40 | Williams Field Road | Serves SanTan Village Mall and Power Center | ||
| 41.23 | 66.35 | 41 | Santan Village Parkway | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | ||
| 42.84 | 68.94 | 42 | Val Vista Drive | Serves Mercy Gilbert Hospital | ||
| 44.01 | 70.83 | 44 | Gilbert Road | Serves Gilbert Crossroads Power Center | ||
| Chandler | 45.47 | 73.18 | 45 | |||
| 46.10 | 74.19 | 46 | McQueen Road | |||
| 47.92 | 77.12 | 47 | Serves Downtown Chandler | |||
| 48.74 | 78.44 | 48 | Alma School Road | |||
| 49.90 | 80.31 | 49 | Dobson Road | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance | ||
| 50.72 | 81.63 | 50A | Clockwise (southern) terminus of Loop 101 | |||
| 50C | HOV access only; westbound exit and eastbound entrance | |||||
| 50.98 | 82.04 | 50B | Price Road | Serves Chandler Fashion Center and Loop 101 frontage roads | ||
| 51.75 | 83.28 | 51 | McClintock Drive / Chandler Village Drive | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | ||
| 52.18 | 83.98 | 53 | Kyrene Road | |||
| 54.10 | 87.07 | 55A 55B |
Split into exits 55A (west) and 55B (east); exits 161A–B on I-10 | |||
| 55C | HOV access only; exit 161C on I-10; westbound exit and eastbound entrance |
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| Phoenix | 55.00 | 88.51 | – | Pecos Road west | Temporary western terminus | |
| 56 | 40th Street | Planned interchange[27] | ||||
| 57 | 21st Street | Planned interchange[27] | ||||
| 58 | Desert Foothills Parkway | Planned interchange[27] | ||||
| 59 | 17th Avenue | Planned interchange[27] | ||||
| 60 | 51st Avenue | Planned interchange[27] | ||||
| 61 | Elliot Road | Planned interchange[27] | ||||
| 62 | Dobbins Road | Planned interchange[27] | ||||
| 63 | Planned interchange; planned eastern terminus of SR 30[27] | |||||
| 64 | Baseline Road | Planned interchange[27] | ||||
| 65 | Southern Avenue | Planned interchange[27] | ||||
| Bridge over the Salt River[27] | ||||||
| 66 | Broadway Road | Planned interchange[27] | ||||
| 67 | Lower Buckeye Road | Planned interchange[27] | ||||
| 68 | Buckeye Road | Planned interchange[27] | ||||
| 69 | Van Buren Street | Planned interchange[27] | ||||
| 70 | Planned interchange located at exit 138 on I-10[27] | |||||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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Spur route[edit]
Arizona Spur 202 is an unsigned state highway located in Phoenix. It begins at Red Mountain Freeway (Loop 202) at exit 5. It continues west, intersecting the Hohokam Expressway (SR 143) and ends at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. This is an unsigned route, marked by westbound exit signs from Loop 202 as Sky Harbor Boulevard. The spur route was commissioned in 1993.[1]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Staff. "ADOT Highway Log" (PDF). Arizona Department of Transportation. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 18, 2007. Retrieved July 16, 2007.
- ^ "Freeway opening scheduled for July 21". The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ). Retrieved July 10, 2008.
- ^ Staff. "Loop 202 Power to University". Arizona Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on February 8, 2008. Retrieved February 2, 2008.
- ^ "Is that Loop 202?". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved March 5, 2008.
- ^ Staff. "Loop 202 (Santan Freeway)". Arizona Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on February 8, 2008. Retrieved February 2, 2008.
- ^ Project Map L202 (Map). Cartography by ADOT. Arizona Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on February 8, 2008. Retrieved February 2, 2008.
- ^ http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/ahwatukee/adot-south-mountain-freeway-receives-final-federal-approval
- ^ http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/12-news/2015/03/11/12news-south-mountain-freeway-approved/24745891/
- ^ Caitlin Cruz. "Gila River landowners' signatures back South Mountain Freeway". Arizona Republic. Retrieved October 15, 2012.
- ^ a b http://www.azmag.gov/Administration/News.asp?y=2012&i=304
- ^ Cathryn Creno. "184 homes in South Mountain Freeway path, planners say". Arizona Republic. Retrieved October 15, 2012.
- ^ https://www.azmag.gov/Documents/MC_2012-04-11_Item-06_SR-202L-as-South-Mountain-Freeway-Design-Review-Summarys.pdf
- ^ http://www.azmag.gov/Documents/MAG_2011-09-12_DRAFT-2011-Annual-Report-on-Prop-400.pdf
- ^ a b http://www.azdot.gov/valleyfreeways/Loop_202/South_Mountain/articles/PDF/121406AZRep.pdf
- ^ http://www.azdot.gov/valleyfreeways/Loop_202/South_Mountain/articles/20060428p.htm
- ^ http://www.azdot.gov/valleyfreeways/Loop_202/South_Mountain/articles/20060426v.htm
- ^ http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/02/07/20120207gila-river-indian-appears-reject-south-mountain-freeway.html
- ^ http://www.azdot.gov/valleyfreeways/Loop_202/South_Mountain/index.asp
- ^ http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2012/02/08/20120208tribal-vote-may-not-end-south-mountain-freeway-struggle.html
- ^ http://www.azcentral.com/community/ahwatukee/articles/20130709no-new-tribal-vote-south-mountain-freeway.html
- ^ http://www.azcentral.com/community/ahwatukee/articles/20130822south-mountain-freeway-impact-study.html
- ^ http://www.epa.gov/region9/nepa/letters/az/south-mountain-freeway-deis.pdf
- ^ http://azdot.gov/projects/phoenix-metro-area/loop-202-south-mountain-freeway
- ^ http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/ahwatukee/2015/05/19/phoenix-south-mountain-freeway-lawsuit-abri/27578365/
- ^ http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/ahwatukee/2015/06/30/gila-river-tribe-sues-prevent-mountain-freeway/29536065/
- ^ http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/ahwatukee/state-to-remove-homes-in-path-of-phoenix-freeway-expansion
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "South Moutain Freeway - Visualization". ADOT (via YouTube). July 1, 2015. Retrieved September 8, 2015.