Skip to main content

Arizona chooses consortium for its largest-ever highway project

The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) has selected Connect 202 Partners as the preferred developer for its first highway public-private partnership, the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway. The consortium includes Fluor Enterprises, Granite Construction and Ames Construction, with Parsons Brinckerhoff as the lead designer. The South Mountain Freeway will be constructed with four lanes in each direction - three general-use lanes and one HOV lane - and includes modern features including rubberised
January 4, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The 6576 Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) has selected Connect 202 Partners as the preferred developer for its first highway public-private partnership, the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway.  The consortium includes 2248 Fluor Enterprises, 7973 Granite Construction and Ames Construction, with 4983 Parsons Brinckerhoff as the lead designer.

The South Mountain Freeway will be constructed with four lanes in each direction - three general-use lanes and one HOV lane - and includes modern features including rubberised asphalt and aesthetics designed in partnership with the community.

While the freeway will not be a toll road, the public-private partnership will allow ADOT to construct the project at an accelerated pace and at a lower cost.

This public-private partnership will reduce costs to taxpayers while accelerating construction. Typically, a project of this magnitude would be split into several smaller projects, but the South Mountain Freeway will be completed as a single project by one contracting team and remains on track for construction to begin in summer 2016. ADOT is expected to finalise the contract with Connect 202 Partners by mid-February. Construction is expected to take up to four years to complete.

“While ADOT has successfully built and managed hundreds of miles of freeways in the Phoenix metropolitan area, following a public-private partnership path for the first time was an appropriate tool for the South Mountain Freeway,” ADOT director John Halikowski said. “ADOT will be able to complete this much-needed project sooner as a result, while increasing the likelihood of saving taxpayer dollars.”

“The South Mountain Freeway is a critical piece of the MAG freeway program,” said Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane, chair of the Maricopa Association of Governments Regional Council. “The freeway has been included in the voter-approved Regional Transportation Plan since 1985 and will provide improved mobility for residents in the MAG region. The design, construction and maintenance of the freeway by a private developer is a unique and innovative approach to delivering this important project.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Home based real time travel information drives reduction in car use
    January 20, 2012
    David Crawford investigates a new approach to discouraging car use - the 'kitchen as travel centre'. ITS technology working together with UK planning legislation is driving an innovative 'kitchen as travel centre' approach to home design which is boosting public transport as an alternative to car use. The combination is already proving powerful enough to assuage environmentalist opposition to major urban developments. It is also being seen as a way of delivering wider social and community benefits inside an
  • NATSO dismisses tolling study claims
    September 16, 2013
    NATSO, the US association representing travel plazas and truck-stops, has rejected the report prepared by the Reason Foundation that pushes for widespread tolling. "The public detests interstate tolls, and with good reason," said NATSO president and CEO Lisa Mullings. "Tolls divert motorists and truck drivers to non-interstates, leading to more traffic deaths. Additionally, it costs the government more money to collect tolls than to collect fuel taxes."
  • TransCore develops nearly 100 miles of express lanes in Dallas/Fort Worth
    November 8, 2016
    TransCore is in the midst of deploying over 100 miles of express lanes throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, as part of an initiative to increase mobility along the region’s busiest corridors. With 34 lanes already operational, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) plans to mark the 100-mile milestone by the end of 2018.
  • WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff JV to support future interstate highways study
    December 22, 2016
    The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies) has selected a joint venture of Cambridge Systematics and WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff, to support the future interstate study mandated in Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act of 2015 (FAST Act). The FAST Act calls for the National Academies’ Transportation Research Board (TRB) to conduct “... a study on the actions needed to upgrade and restore the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highway