A new experience coming soon for I-10 motorists

May 5—For almost any East Valley motorist who uses the I-10 westbound between Baseline Road and 40th Street or eastbound from 48th street to Baseline, the Arizonan Department of Transportation will soon unveil what it believes is a blessing and what some drivers initially may consider a curse.

It's not exactly a surprise — though some motorists may feel that way.

The so-called Collector-Distributor (CD) roads have always been a major component of the I-10 Broadway Curve Improvement Project ever since ADOT unveiled the massive project's components in 2019.

The CD roads will collect traffic from I-10, SR 143 and US 60 and distribute it to crossroads or other highways, ending the weaving across lanes endured by US 60 motorists exiting to the westbound I-10 and westbound I-10 motorists heading for the Broadway Road exit.

The roads' onset already is having an impact on I-10 motorists and more will be coming next week and next month.

The eastbound I-10 off-ramp to 32nd Street was closed March 29 and will remain that way into June while on May 11, the westbound ramp to Baseline will close until mid-June.

This weekend from 7 p.m. Friday, May 3, through 5 a.m. Monday, the I-10 westbound will be closed from the Loop 202 Santan Freeway to US 60.

Sometime in early summer, although ADOT has no date yet, the HOV ramps connecting the US 60 and I-10 will be closed while Guadalupe Road between Pointe Parkway and Calle Sahuaro also will be shut down mid-summer. The length of those closures has not been determined.

"There will still be some project-related restrictions throughout the project, including within the CD roads as construction continues, though," added ADOT spokeswoman Marceline McMacken.

Before the westbound CD roads open at the end of June and the eastbound CD lanes open later this year, ADOT wants motorists to conquer the learning curve they may present.

The agency manned a series of low-key information booths in Ahwatukee and Tempe and has created a detailed instructional guide — complete with a video in Spanish and English — on its Broadway Curve website (i10broadwaycurve.com) to prepare motorists for what lay ahead.

Acknowledging the challenge that may await some motorists, ADOT has titled it "Find Your Lane."

But McMacken added, once motorists get the hang of the CD roads, "it'll just be a lot easier" to reach destinations that have been generating many a white-knuckled driver for years.

Big component of a big project

The CD roads — three westbound and two eastbound — are part of ADOT's most ambitious highway project on one of Arizona's busiest interstate highways.

The $776 million project, for which construction began in 2021, aims to reduce travel times on I-10 during peak hours and improve airport access on a key stretch of an interstate that sees over 300,000 cars and trucks every day.

Without that project, a Maricopa Association of Governments study indicated about six years ago, longer rush hours and delays would be inevitable as total daily traffic approaches 340,000 vehicles by next year.

Focusing on the stretch between the Loop 202 in Chandler and the I-17 split, the Broadway Curve project is so complex that three companies were involved in its design and three construction companies are executing it.

It emerged from the MAG study of the 31-mile corridor beginning at the I-17/Loop 101 (North Stack) interchange, through the I-10/I-17 (The Split) interchange, and down the I-10 to the interchange with Loop 202 (Pecos Stack).

"This corridor is referred to as 'The Spine,'" MAG noted, "because it serves as the backbone for transportation in the metropolitan Phoenix area. The corridor handles more than 40 percent of all daily freeway traffic in the region."

"The existing traffic congestion continues to increase from the extensive growth the Valley has been experiencing. Recognized as a potential transportation problem in the early 2000s, the already challenged movement of goods, services, and people would experience major delays in the foreseeable future," it added, stressing that continued growth in the Valley "would continue to outpace the facility's capacity to handle the demand."

Traffic counts contained in the March 2018 I-10/I-17 corridor study showed a daily volume of 200,000 vehicles on the I-10 at Broadway Road and slightly less than that on I-10 at Elliot Road.

That volume was expected to grow to more than 250,000 vehicles at Broadway and more than 200,000 at Elliot. Given that Maricopa County last year was dubbed the nation's fastest growing county, those projections likely were not exaggerations.

The Broadway Curve Improvement Project has included widening I-10 to six general purpose lanes and two high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes in each direction between US 60 and I-17 and a fourth general purpose lane in each direction between Ray Road and US 60.

It also aims to improve traffic flow with connections between SR 143 and the I-10 HOV lanes, a new Broadway Road bridge over I-10 and new 48th Street bridges over the interstate, and wider bridges over the Salt River. It also is producing new bridges for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The project also has involved sound and retaining walls where needed and an improved Sun Circle Trail crossing at Guadalupe Road.

How CD roads will work

With no signals, no pedestrians or bicyclists allowed and a 55 m.p.h. speed limit, the CD roads "separate through-traffic from local traffic entering and exiting I-10 through the Broadway Curve area," ADOT notes on its website. "This will reduce the need for vehicles to weave between lanes and help keep traffic flowing on I-10."

"Drivers heading westbound on I-10 and exiting at eastbound US 60, Broadway Road, northbound SR 143 or 40th Street will need to use the westbound CD road," ADOT advises.

Westbound I-10 motorists heading to Sky harbor International Airport via SR 143 will find it a little easier to get there as long as they have a passenger, at least during certain times of the day: The I-10 HOV lane will ease right onto the highway. Solitary westbound I-10 drivers will have to use the westbound CD road to reach SR 143.

There are four westbound entry points to the westbound CD road: just at and just south of Baseline Road, just south of US 60 and the US 60 ramp that heads toward the I-10 westbound lanes.

ADOT has noted that overhead signs "will help drivers find the correct entrances and exits to get to their destination."

The signs won't say "CD roads."

"Instead, drivers will be directed to the correct lane based on their destination," ADOT explains. "Depending on your entrance location and destination, CD roads may change your travel route on I-10 between Baseline Road and 40th Street."

Drivers coming from Broadway Road will enter westbound I-10 directly and won't be able to enter the westbound CD road. These drivers will also need to use local streets to get to destinations on 40th Street.

Drivers on westbound I-10 who are not exiting at eastbound US 60, Broadway Road, northbound SR 143 or 40th Street, will stay on the the main lanes of the interstate. The westbound CD road will eventually merge back with I-10 mainline traffic west of 40th Street.

McMacken said a number of people who approached ADOT's booths on the CD roads were locals.

"They were the residents who travel in that area often just to get to one place to the other," she said. "It's going to be new for them and they want to be able to plan a route and figure out how they're going to get to the Arizona Mills Mall and other places."

She said that even during spring training, ADOT representatives dropped by Diablo Stadium in Tempe to talk to fans.

"It's more a courtesy to the public," she said. "We've been talking about it so long, we just want to share as much information as possible."