Early opening for Arizona’s first P3 deal, South Mountain Freeway

Arizona's first highway public-private partnership will open in 2019, three years earlier than scheduled, the state transportation department said.

The development consortium Connect 202 Partners said it had revised the finish date for the US$1.9 billion project by constructing the final section all at once. Connect 202 Partners is working under a 30-year design, build and maintain contract for the 35.5km route.

The South Mountain Freeway refers to a segment of State Route 202, or Loop 202, a partial beltway around the eastern Phoenix metropolitan area of central Arizona. It crosses the eastern end of the city of Phoenix, from Chandler to the Papago Freeway (I-10) in west Phoenix.

The other two segments are called Red Mountain Freeway and Santan Freeway. Red Mountain runs from the Mini Stack Interchange in Phoenix to the SuperRedTan Interchange in Mesa. Santan Freeway goes from the SuperRedTan Interchange to Maricopa Freeway (I-10) in Chandler.

A fly-through <%$Linker:2External<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary />000oLinkExternalvideo visualisationfalsehttp://www.azdot.gov/truefalse%> is available free on the website of the Arizona Department of Transportation.