Updating the Interstate 17 Highway Improvements – Bill Williams

Costs have risen but Arizona will have its first “flex lanes”

We thought it was time to update you on the I-17 Improvement project which affects us all, whether getting tourists and outdoorsmen here and there or the trucking of goods and services.

As is with all government construction projects, whether an F-35 jet or a highway renovation, there is always scope creep – or what requirements increase costs over a project’s lifecycle. Since our first report on the “Black Canyon Highway” earlier this year, the state legislature appropriated an additional $76 million in funding mostly due to changes in federal permitting that led to additional costs, according to Arizona Department of Transportation spokesperson Laura Douglas.

We can show you what the $446 million Kiewit-Fann Joint Venture (dubbed by ADOT) is accomplishing on our state’s major corridor by linking you to ADOT videos in this report.

ADOT says crews are making significant progress to improve the 23-mile drive between Anthem Way and Sunset Point. And if you do travel ‘the zone’ you will see excavated rock and dirt looking like various sorted mountains of debris that will be used, somewhere on the project.

At the southern end of the project, near Anthem, AZ you may have seen construction crews grading the area in the median between the existing northbound and southbound lanes as they prepare to add one general purpose lane in each direction. When the work is complete, drivers will have three northbound lanes and three southbound lanes along the 15 miles between Anthem Way and Black Canyon City.

Here is ADOT’s aerial drone footage of the project area as well as night time work and rock blasting…

Bridge work is another major part of this project. Adding new lanes requires widening 10 bridges and replacing three others. Some of the bridges currently under construction include New River Road, New River Wash and Moores Gulch.

Now that ADOT is full on into the project it would like drivers to slow down and pay attention, according to Douglas.

Controlled rock blasting and earthwork are the biggest operations currently underway on the project. Rock blasting is needed to make way for the additional general-purpose lanes and the eight miles of flex lanes, which will be constructed next to the existing southbound lanes from Black Canyon City to Sunset Point. The flex lanes are a new feature for Arizona’s highway system and are designed to reduce congestion on I-17 during peak travel times.

“The earthwork and excavation are impressive. It’s an operation where 1.7 million cubic yards of material will be removed from the mountainsides, then hauled to another area where it’s prepared and crushed,” said Annette Riley, ADOT’s project manager for the I-17 Improvement Project. “All the material that is blasted and excavated will go back into the project to construct the new lanes. We’re using everything that we remove.”

Because I-17 is such a heavily traveled corridor, a significant portion of the construction work occurs during the weeknight overnight hours from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. when lane closures and restrictions are allowed. Work still happens during the day as crews work in the median or on the sides of the highway.

THE FLEX LANE CONCEPT

If you have driven I-17 when a car wreck has occurred, you know it can be hours if not a day before you get where you want to go. When the project is completed, drivers traveling the 8 miles between Black Canyon City and Sunset Point will experience the first flex lanes on Arizona’s state highway system. And speaking of Sunset Point and flexing…. the rest area – which ADOT calls “bathroom with a view” – is  remodeled and reopened at the country’s most popular rest stop.

ADOT created this rudimentary animated video showing how the new flex lanes will work.

Constructed adjacent to the existing southbound lanes it will carry one direction of traffic at a time. According to ADOT, the flex lanes are a proven system that safely addresses traffic congestion during peak travel times, or if an unplanned wreck creates delays. Typically, the flex lanes will be open to northbound traffic Monday through Saturday, and open to southbound traffic on Sunday. However, the flex lanes will be open, as needed, to whichever direction has the heaviest traffic. They will be operational at all times seven days a week.

Here is an aerial sequence of the area that will receive the flex lanes, courtesy the ADOT drone fleet…

Vehicles will use new crossover lanes to safely access the flex lanes, which will be separated from the existing southbound lanes by a concrete barrier. Steel gates will be installed in the concrete barrier in four locations, allowing emergency responders to clear traffic out of the flex lanes and into the general-purpose lanes in the event of a car wreck.

ADOT’s Traffic Operations Center, which looks like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise,  will manage and monitor the flex lanes remotely using cameras that will be placed throughout the corridor.

• Safety systems will be in place to prevent vehicles from entering the flex lanes when traffic is flowing in the opposite direction.
• A specialized automated net barrier and swing gate system will operate at both ends of the flex lanes.
• When one direction of the flex lanes is closed, a series of swing gates will be extended. These gates get progressively wider and block access to the flex lanes.

Some have asked ‘why not improve the highway all the way to Flagstaff?’ Answer:  An extensive environmental study would need to be completed. This would require a significant amount of additional funding for the study, the design process, and the construction. Currently, no additional funding is available.

Current I-17 Project funding sources include:

• $175.9 million from federal aid with matching state highway funds
• $130 million of state highway funds appropriated by the state legislature in 2019
• $90 million from an Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant
• $50 million programmed by the Maricopa Association of Governments for the Maricopa County portion of the project

The steep terrain in most of this project area is a major challenge to motorists and engineers. One ADOT engineer once told this reporter, “There’s a reason the railroad never came down that hill – the Black Canyon (where wagon masters had to dodge hunks of black igneous rock when it was first traveled in the 1800s) – the reason is that it’s too darn steep. The railroads never saw it as a viable corridor.”

ADOT hopes to wrap up the I-17 construction in 2025.