These west valley freeway closures are out of hand and unnecessary (Phoenix: 2014, tax)

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by phetaroi

You're right, there is no perfect solution, but plenty of freeways in plenty of places get well-maintained by night work and reducing lanes, not shutting them down completely.

Most of us would rather have the majority of construction projects take place during times when there is reduced traffic, which is usually later in the evenings. The only issue I can see with night work is the increase cost due to mandated shift differential pay. But regardless of when it takes place, ADOT certainly doesn't have to close down entire freeways, especially since I rarely notice any kind of major improvement or changes on the freeways when they're reopened.

[jaredC]

Originally Posted by phetaroi

You're right, there is no perfect solution, but plenty of freeways in plenty of places get well-maintained by night work and reducing lanes, not shutting them down completely.

And on the weekends where ADOT thinks no one drives them and are all sitting at home waiting till monday.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by jaredC

And on the weekends where ADOT thinks no one drives them and are all sitting at home waiting till monday.

I doubt ADOT thinks that. They have tremendous amounts of data coming in from the intelligent hiway system so they know exactly what traffic patterns look like both historically and in real time. I imagine that is how they determined to do what they do. Or maybe they just want to mess with us.

[ElleTea]

We were out and about this weekend and wanted to go to Glendale to go to Macy's, but a chunk of the 101 WB was closed, so we went to Scottsdale instead. Later, we headed to Ahwatukee and noticed that I-10 WB was closed at the 51/202 AND there was a mess with closures on I-17. The backups on the surface streets nearby were ridiculous.

Again, I understand the need for road work, but closing portions of THREE major freeways in the same weekend? We couldn't take a freeway to the west if we wanted to. Ridiculous!

[Ponderosa]

Imagine how much worse things will be if the infrastructure bill is ever passed. I drive across the country a couple times a year and our roads are an appalling disgrace. There are so many things that need attention and if that money becomes available it is going to be construction work and delays everywhere. We will be better off here in PHX because our freeways are maintained, but even then, they have plans for some new roads and new interchanges that will impact our traffic for years. Arizona does have 132 bridges and over 3000 miles of roadway in poor condition including some around the metro. In addition there is a billion for public transportation so maybe expect the light rail to be expanded and we all know what a traffic disaster that was while under construction.

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

We were out and about this weekend and wanted to go to Glendale to go to Macy's, but a chunk of the 101 WB was closed, so we went to Scottsdale instead. Later, we headed to Ahwatukee and noticed that I-10 WB was closed at the 51/202 AND there was a mess with closures on I-17. The backups on the surface streets nearby were ridiculous.

Again, I understand the need for road work, but closing portions of THREE major freeways in the same weekend? We couldn't take a freeway to the west if we wanted to. Ridiculous!

That's ADUHT for you! Here they are closing down entire freeway sections for supposed maintenance, but they allow pumps to malfunction, which results in flooding whenever there's heavy rain. ADOT also spent millions of dollars on the rubberized asphalt program, and is now having to spend millions more to remove it because of the horrible quality. I won't even get into all their other blunders, such as why Grand Avenue never became a freeway as planned over 30 years ago.

ADOT seems to have their priorities all screwed up, and the public simply puts up with it & keeps approving more funding for freeways which they can't seem to get started. I'm not saying the transportation departments in other states are anything to brag about, but ADOT has got to be one of the worst as far as competence ... perhaps only slightly better than CalTrans, which isn't saying much.

[aznative94]

The closures can be crazy for sure. Wish they would consider quality of the final product. We were so glad when the widening of the 101 was complete (7th Ave through Cave Creek Road). But they left the indentations of the old lane lines in the road. Driving westbound when the sun is setting, the light hits the roads in a way that makes it hard to distinguish the new lanes from the old. Traffic slows way down, IMO it's partially due to people trying to make sure they are in the correct lane. Dangerous.

[bobsell]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

Imagine how much worse things will be if the infrastructure bill is ever passed.

Yup.

We'll have a large amount funneled to cronies and the roads cheaply rebuilt.

Then 3-5 years later we need another "infrastructure bill"

[jaredC]

Originally Posted by Valley Native

That's ADUHT for you! Here they are closing down entire freeway sections for supposed maintenance, but they allow pumps to malfunction, which results in flooding whenever there's heavy rain. ADOT also spent millions of dollars on the rubberized asphalt program, and is now having to spend millions more to remove it because of the horrible quality. I won't even get into all their other blunders, such as why Grand Avenue never became a freeway as planned over 30 years ago.

ADOT seems to have their priorities all screwed up, and the public simply puts up with it & keeps approving more funding for freeways which they can't seem to get started. I'm not saying the transportation departments in other states are anything to brag about, but ADOT has got to be one of the worst as far as competence ... perhaps only slightly better than CalTrans, which isn't saying much.

And get ready for another weekend round of West I10 closures. This time from 99th ave to Avondale blvd. Not as impressive as the last few weekend freeway closures, but still enough that going anywhere west of 99th ave, to become a nightmare. It is disgusting that ADOT determines what our weekend plans are to be. I needed to go to the far west valley on saturday, but I am not willing to deal with hour long, grid locked surface street delay's.

On the weekend of October 16th, my friend had a BBQ planned at his new house out there in Goodyear. The I10 west was closed that weekend, and most of the attendees were coming from the east or north side of Phoenix. Out of 30-40 people that were invited, half showed. The other half was stuck, bogged down in traffic for hours and eventually turned around and went home.

[timothyaw]

Has ADOT finally got the message? They're narrowing lanes on two projects instead of closing the entire freeway. We can only hope this is the start of using common sense for freeway maintenance.
https://ktar.com/story/5558113/state...ekend-closure/