I-10 project could give city another way to access freeway, relieve SR 347

Improvements coming to Interstate 10 along the Wild Horse Pass Corridor could benefit Maricopa, including another potential way to reach the freeway to augment State Route 347, Deputy City Manager Ben Bitter said during a presentation at Tuesday’s council meeting.

“What many of us may not realize is that (Seed Farm Road) is the Smith-Enke alignment,” Bitter said. “About six miles east of the Volkswagen test facility is where Seed Farm Road would meet up with I-10. So, if you think as a resident of Tortosa, currently to get to Phoenix you would have to head west about five or six miles to hit SR 347 and then head north.

“Think of the possibilities of what could be if we could have another route instead of SR 347, where people could go east five or six miles, connect to I-10 and then head north. These are types of solutions we look for in terms of lessening the load on SR 347. They are long processes, they are difficult processes, but we certainly want to be engaged in so we can have those options for the future.”

The scenario is hypothetical at this point and there are no definite plans to make the link. But a Seed Farms Road interchange would make it possible in the future.

Another key element of the project from the city’s viewpoint is the new I-10 interchange planned at Queen Creek Road, according to Bitter.

“Why are we talking about I-10? This has a lot of impact for us in Maricopa, specifically the interchange at Queen Creek Road and what that will look like,” Bitter said. “I know a lot of people have heard there’s something called a diverging-diamond interchange. . . . This video starts to show and give people an idea of how they’ll manage that type of interchange.”

The bulk of Bitter’s presentation centered on a fly-over video produced by Arizona Department of Transportation that shows the improvements, most notably adding a third lane in each direction along the 29 miles of freeway from Loop 202 south to Casa Grande.

That stretch of I-10 is the last that remains two lanes each way from Phoenix to Tucson.

Improvements planned on the I-10 Wild Horse Pass Corridor include:

• Adding a third lane each way along the entire 29-mile segment.
• Upgrading State Route 347/Queen Creek Road interchange and converting it to a diverging diamond, facilitating better traffic flow. That interchange would accommodate widening SR 347 from I-10 to Maricopa.
• Extending the southbound HOV lane south to Riggs Road.
• Building an overpass on Riggs Road over SR 347, alleviating the frequent traffic backups at the intersection.
• Replacing bridges on I-10 spanning the Gila River, which were built in the 1960s. This is a separate project that is underway.
• Adding an I-10 interchange at Seed Farm Road west of Maricopa.

Vice Mayor Vincent Manfredi said these improvements are not fantasy, but reality.

“This is not a pie-in-the-sky dream we’re talking about here. This is not, ‘maybe this is going to happen.’ This is going to happen,” Manfredi said. “This is work our legislators, Teresa Martinez, TJ Shope our state senator, they fought tooth-and-nail to get this funding and then, of course, to get the matching federal funding and the (Maricopa Association of Governments) grants.

“This is the cool stuff that’s happening. The interchange at I-10 and Queen Creek Road, that is the first step in getting the 347 fixed where we need it. This is going to fix that intersection so when we put those people on 347 on additional lanes, this is the first step, the Queen Creek Road and the diverging diamond that’s going there. And then the next step, of course, is the work we’re doing with Riggs Road and taking Riggs over the 347, and that’s going to start in the next year or so, and we’ll get that started and completed in the next 24 to 48 months.”

Editor’s note: Vincent Manfredi is an owner of InMaricopa.