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55th
Ave. route for freeway selected By
Corinne Purtill The
Arizona Republic
The
western leg of the South Mountain Freeway will connect to
Interstate 10 at
55th Avenue
, the Arizona Department of Transportation announced Thursday,
capping years of debate with a return to a plan first proposed
20 years ago.
After reviewing community compatibility, cost and a
last-minute traffic report, the agency picked the
55th Avenue
route over a proposed alternative at
Loop
101. The agency's choice was first proposed in 1985 as part of
the Regional Transportation Plan.
"A lot of local planning has occurred consistent with
that line on the map," ADOT Director Victor Mendez said
Thursday.
The
decision, however, was not well-received by a citizens group
that had been appointed to provide input on the alignment.
ADOT data released earlier this year indicated that the
55th Avenue
alignment would lead to more congestion and longer commutes on
Interstate 10. However, an analysis completed only a week ago
by the Maricopa Association of Governments said that the Loop
101 connection would increase traffic on I-10 between the Loop
101 and the planned
Loop
303 in an area where high growth is projected.
Once all the pieces of the region's transportation system are
in place, including Loop 303 and the planned I-10 reliever
known as
Arizona
801, the
55th Avenue
connection works best, said Eric Anderson, MAG transportation
director.
The
55th Avenue
option is also $600 million to $700 million cheaper than the
Loop
101 link. With that alignment, the South Mountain Freeway's
price tag is about $1.68 billion.
The route won't be official until the Federal Highway
Administration signs off on the project, likely in late 2007.
ADOT, however, has no plans to change it "unless we've
missed something that we're not aware of," Mendez said.
Unhappy with the decision were many members of the South
Mountain Citizens Advisory Team, a volunteer citizen panel
that spent four years reviewing technical reports with ADOT.
The panel recommended the
Loop
101 alignment in April. It did not have a chance to see the
MAG traffic report on which ADOT based part of its decision.
"We can't make everyone happy," Mendez said about
the citizen input. "When we created the CAT (Citizens
Advisory Team) process, I believe it was pretty clear they
were part of the overall (discussion). They weren't making the
final decision."
Some members of the team felt differently.
"To a degree, we were just there as whitewash. We were
there to make the public believe they (ADOT officials) were
listening to a citizens group," said Rock Argabright, who
represented the Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce.
"They ignored us. In my mind, they had a political plan
all along."
Indeed, the
55th Avenue
route had heavy political backing.
Phoenix
lobbied hard to preserve the work it had done to keep parts of
west
Phoenix
clear for the
55th Avenue
route. Tolleson residents fought vigorously to prevent the
Loop
101 alignment from tearing through their tiny city.
Several cities passed resolutions in favor of
55th Avenue
. Many of those documents were crafted by a group calling
itself the Citizens Supporting
a 55th Avenue
Alignment Coalition.
Made up of landowners and developers along the route, the
coalition hired an attorney and a public relations firm to
press its case. Their attorney, Nicholas J. Wood, estimated
their expenses at more than $100,000.
"We've spent a lot of time and money on this
project," said Wes Lines, who owns land in west
Phoenix
that the state will now have to buy. "We're happy to
cooperate."
The South Mountain Freeway is the final leg of
Loop
202.
In the 1985 plan, the
Phoenix
bypass ran from I-10 along
55th Avenue
to
Pecos Road
before reconnecting to I-10.
A federal study launched in 2001 required ADOT to review the
route.
In the
West
Valley
, engineers narrowed about 30 alignments down to the original
path at
55th Avenue
, a route at
71st Avenue
and one along
99th Avenue, south
of
Loop
101.
Thursday's announcement ends years of suspense for
West
Valley
homeowners, businesses and governments.
It is a particular relief for Tolleson, which would have lost
a large chunk of its city to the
Loop
101 connection.
"Tolleson's future was in the balance on this
issue," Mayor Adolfo Gamez said Thursday. "It's a
new dawn for us."
Some along the route said the news was a blow, if not
unexpected. "It's so political. I was disappointed, but I
was fairly well set that it was going to be this loop,"
said Jim Massey, owner of two west
Phoenix
truck-repair businesses that will have to be moved.
ADOT said it shied away from the
Loop
101 connection in part because of the high cost of moving the
handful of businesses along that route.
On Thursday, one of those business owners said he was more
surprised by ADOT's choice than relieved his plant was spared.
"I can't imagine what that section of the (I-10) is going
to be like," said Ed Eisele, president of Holsum Bakery
in Tolleson. "That's the $64 question: what the reality
of that freeway is going to be."
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