Loop 101 Widening Project To Begin Next Summer

July 22, 2013

If you drive the Loop 101 Pima Freeway north of the Red Mountain part of the Loop 202 very often, you know traffic many times becomes bogged down there. There is relief on the way. But, just like a freeway back-up, it is going to take a while.  Arizona Department of Transportation said once the Loop 303 is completed in the West Valley, it will start working on a Loop 101 widening project between the Red Mountain 202 and Shea Boulevard.

“That is our next major project to add the single lane in each direction. Those would be regular traffic lanes, to expand it to four lanes, plus an HOV lane in each direction," spokesman Doug Nintzel said.

 But, the additional lanes are still a ways away.  ADOT expects to start work on them in the summer of 2014.  The new lanes should increase freeway capacity about 25 percent, on a highway that already carries 150,000 vehicles a day in each direction on average.

“Because we already have the HOV lanes built and those lanes took the median space along the 101, this particular project would work to the outside of the freeway to add an additional  general purpose, or what folks would see as a regular traffic lane in each direction," Nintzel said.

 Nintzel said the project will also provide more room for traffic to merge between the Loop 202 and the 101.