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U.S. 60 route plan bypasses Gold Canyon
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Transportation officials will unveil the latest plans tonight for a new U.S. 60 that would run near Gold Canyon.
The Arizona Department of Transportation is looking at the alternative route one year after last meeting with Gold Canyon residents and hearing they opposed widening the current highway and turning it into a freeway.
Residents said they wanted a new road on undeveloped land rather than using the existing route, said Teresa Welborn, ADOT's deputy public involvement director. "We would be taking businesses and homes, and they were not in favor of that," she said.
State planners started looking into U.S. 60 improvements in 1998 and hope they are now on track to adopt a specific plan for a freeway that would relieve the congested divided highway.
ADOT is looking at a 13-mile-long reroute from Apache Junction to Florence Junction. The existing highway would become a local road.
The desire for a new road extends far beyond Gold Canyon residents who are frustrated with the increasingly congested road.
Drivers heading from the East Valley to places like Globe can get bogged down in traffic jams after collisions because there are no parallel routes in the area. Also, the road gets clogged during major events like the Renaissance Festival.
"There are traffic backups that go forever," said Greg Stanley, Pinal County's public works director.
The bypass is a top priority for the county, Stanley said.
But there's no funding for it. Neither ADOT nor the county have identified how to pay for it, when it would be built or even the cost.
ADOT hasn't designed the road yet. First, Welborn said, it wants to get public reaction to the general route, including two possible paths around the Renaissance grounds. It also wants feedback on the location of five interchanges.
If you go
What: Open house on U.S. 60 alignment study
When: 6 p.m. with 6:30 p.m. presentation today
Where: Mountain Brook Village Activity Center, 5674 S. Marble Drive, Gold Canyon
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