303 loop opening soon (Peoria, Sun City, Surprise: tax, live in, housing)

[mjd2k]

Hi, I noticed part of the 303 loop will be opening soon. Happy Valley to 17. I think this should make Vistanica and other areas very accesible. What do you think about the impact of the 303 and the partial opening in particular? Many of you have experienced other loop openings

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by mjd2k

Hi, I noticed part of the 303 loop will be opening soon. Happy Valley to 17. I think this should make Vistanica and other areas very accesible. What do you think about the impact of the 303 and the partial opening in particular? Many of you have experienced other loop openings

Accessible to what, Anthem? The part that would make Vistancia accessible would be south of Happy Valley to I-10 and that is years and years away. In the meantime, it will open more desert to tract housing development for more traffic on I-17 and the streets leading south and east - just what we need. It does substitute 14 miles of freeway on my trip to L. Pleasant and that will help. It used to not matter much until Peoria started building along L. Pleasant Road leading to congestion and more cars and red lights.

[mjd2k]

Hmmm. Good points.

[slackjaw]

So is next leg is South past White Tank to connect to I10 West?

I'd love to be able to cut the Sun City component out of Vegas trips, that is pretty much the only real drag at this point now that the Tillman Bridge is open near the dam.

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

Accessible to what, Anthem? The part that would make Vistancia accessible would be south of Happy Valley to I-10 and that is years and years away. In the meantime, it will open more desert to tract housing development for more traffic on I-17 and the streets leading south and east - just what we need. It does substitute 14 miles of freeway on my trip to L. Pleasant and that will help. It used to not matter much until Peoria started building along L. Pleasant Road leading to congestion and more cars and red lights.

I have to agree with you for the most part on this point. The most essential part of Loop 303 needing completion is the leg stretching from I10 northward through Surprise. The voters already approved this in 2004, so there is no need to keep delaying the entire freeway from being built as originally planned. By the time ADUHT gets around to constructing the part connecting I10, it will already be out of date.

This first section of Loop 303 in the far NW Valley is only going to serve as a minor traffic reliever for those who live in the area ... and it will be so minor that there will barely be any dent in I17 traffic. Furthermore, it's only going to be four lanes (not a true freeway as far as I'm concerned). So in years to come when more development arises, ADUHT will need to spend more of our tax money to widen it.

[Cyborg13]

You would think after experimenting with 101 and 202 and having to go back and widen both of them, they would have the foresight to make 303 3+1 lanes in each direction, with bowtie-style interchanges at all major roads from the get-go. At least they are putting one of those at the Happy Valley interchange. The rest, it looks like, will have to be redone later. It's like they say..."We do things right because we do things twice." Freeway and traffic volume planning is not that difficult, anyone who regularly uses the highway system and pays attention can pick up on trends and patterns, what works and what doesn't.