Less than six months after major construction began on Arizona’s largest single highway project ever, progress on the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway has been swift, with the project on track to be delivered sooner than originally anticipated.
This was the goal when the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) green-lighted the state’s first highway public-private partnership (P3) to deliver a critically needed transportation project for Valley motorists in a shorter time frame.
Instead of building the final piece of the Loop 202 system as nine individual projects, as originally planned, the 22-mile corridor is being built as a single project. That will deliver the South Mountain Freeway by the end of 2019, at least three years sooner.
Under an innovative agreement announced in February 2016, Connect 202 Partners, a team consisting of Fluor Enterprises Inc., Granite Construction Co. and Ames Construction Inc., with Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc. as the lead designer, is responsible for the design and construction of the freeway corridor and for 30 years of maintenance following construction.
Using this delivery method, the developer can work in several areas of the freeway corridor at once. For instance, while some areas of the freeway are still under design, the developer can work in other areas that are ready for construction.
Instead of completing small portions of the freeway and opening them individually, the South Mountain Freeway will open in its entirety when finished, unlike many other ADOT projects.
The freeway will provide a long-planned direct link between the East Valley and West Valley and a much-needed alternative to I-10 through downtown Phoenix.
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Source: Arizona DOT
