NORTH
VALLEY – Maricopa County Department of Transportation
last week unveiled its final recommendations on widening
Carefree Highway.
As
expected, MCDOT’s findings received mixed reviews from
North Valley residents attending the department’s open
house at Sunset Ridge Elementary School in Tramonto.
The
transportation department is recommending the expansion
of Carefree Highway from four lanes to six between Interstate
17 and Cave Creek Road, and from two lanes to four from
Cave Creek to Scottsdale Road. The expansion would require
the acquisition of added right‑of‑way, and
the proposal calls for traffic signals at four additional
intersections.
“The
county says its recommendation has moderate public support,
but I don’t think they do,” said Ted Bryda, a Whispering
Hills resident.
Tim
Spence, who lives near 53rd Street, favors the high‑way
widening.
“It’s
progress, and it will make my property worth more. I am
not looking at living my life here. I’m looking at the
money,” Spence told The Desert Advocate.
According
to MCDOT’s Access Control and Corridor Improvement Study,
it is recommended that the highway be widened in the near
term between North Valley Parkway and 23rd Lane. By 2016,
it would be expanded from 56th Street to Scottsdale Road,
and the remainder from 23rd Lane to 56th Street by 2026.
The county bases its recommendations on traffic volume
projections for 2026.
Bryda
and other residents expressed concern that the study’s
plan to replace deceleration lanes with additional through
lanes near 36th Street is unsafe. MCDOT spokeswoman Roberta
Crowe said, however, adding deceleration lanes is not
addressed at the recommendation level but later at the
conceptual design phase.
Project
partners–Carefree, Cave Creek, Phoenix, Scottsdale, the
county, State Land Department and Arizona Department of
Transportation–will make the final decisions.
The
expansion will require additional right‑of‑way
both north and south of the existing highway, according
to MCDOT. Some nearby residents fear the right‑of‑way
acquisitions will take a slice of their property and leave
the remainder less marketable.
One
woman, who declined to be identified, said a number of
property owners purchased land along Carefree Highway
to sell for commercial development later in their lives
and the expanded right‑of‑way will limit the
use of their property.
“Personally,
I don’t like the plan, but it is necessary for growth,”
said Scott Zee, owner of a house in Amber Hills which
backs up to the highway on the south side. “If they use
rubberized asphalt (sound proofing), it would make a world
of difference and cause less of an uproar.”
Between
I‑17 and Cave Creek Road, a right‑of‑way
width of 140 feet is recommended to provide
space for six travel lanes, a raised median, bicycle lanes,
sidewalks and utilities. Drainage facilities will need
to be lengthened and/or increased as well.
The
plan would require new right‑of‑way acquisition
between 7th Avenue and 16th Street, and between 44th Street
and Cave Creek Road. The preferred alignment is symmetrical,
with the use of equal amounts of land on both sides of
the roadway.
The
purchase of new right‑of‑way is estimated
to cost $2.4 million, according to the study. The cost
of constructing the highway improvements is estimated
at $50.6 million.
Julie
Boswell, a resident living in the Stagecoach Pass area
of Carefree, said in the past three weeks, three accidents
occurred near her home where vehicles went through a fence
along the highway, and she hopes the realignment will
move the highway farther from her home.
