Freeway crews prepare to move on South Mountain Park

The Arizona Department of Transportation and Connect202Partners are beginning one of the most controversial phases of the South Mountain Freeway project.

ADOT last week announced that crews are setting the stage for construction of the freeway’s three-mile “central segment” through the southwestern edge of South Mountain Park.

The eight-lane highway will require Connect202Partners, the consortium of companies that is designing and building the freeway, to cut a 200-foot-wide swath across three peaks.

That plan has been vehemently opposed by the Gila River Indian Community and nearly two dozen Southwestern U.S. tribes because Native Americans consider South Mountain a sacred site.

However, the tribes failed to convince federal courts that highway planners had not conducted sufficient study to avoid what Native Americans called the desecration of the mountain, which they call “Muhadagi doag.”

The 22-mile freeway is envisioned as a detour around I-10’s heavily congested Horseshoe Curve and downtown Phoenix by connecting the 59th Avenue and Chandler interchanges on the interstate.

The $1.7 billion freeway – the most expensive highway project in state history – is scheduled to be completed near the end of next year.

The initial work signals an acceleration of the project. Up till now, crews have been focusing on three of the four segments of the freeway and ADOT has consistently said work on the central portion would not begin until the middle of this year.

For now, ADOT said, “crews have already started creating right-of-way fencing and surveying to identify and tag trees and cactuses in the path of construction that are good candidates for salvage.

“Over the next few months, hundreds of plants that eventually will be replanted along the freeway will be removed and placed in a temporary nursery,” it added.

Crews with heavy equipment have already started examining the condition of soil and rock and the depth of groundwater in the central segment.

“These geotechnical investigations, which occur on every freeway expansion project, allow engineers to plan for pavement, bridges, walls and drainage structures,” ADOT said.

Part of the work also requires construction of temporary access roads over the next few months so that work crews can reach the intended path of the freeway through South Mountain.

ADOT also said that controlled blasting will begin in May along two ridges “to break large rock into smaller, more manageable pieces as crews create a path for the freeway.”

The mountain portion of the freeway will be “partially elevated to minimize the amount of earth removed from the mountains,” ADOT said.

It also said periodic traffic restrictions are anticipated on 51st Avenue, Dusty Lane and Ivanhoe Street in Phoenix.

Gila Community opponents of the freeway two years ago vowed to try to stop construction in the area even if they had to lay down in the path of bulldozers.

But those opponents had been noticeably absent from public view even before a federal appeals court rejected tribal efforts to halt the project.