Workers used big machines to rip apart the interstate over Ina Road Wednesday.
Eastbound traffic is now diverted into the opposite lanes through the freeway construction zone and westbound traffic runs on the frontage road.
Arizona Department of Transportation spokesman Tom Herrmann says drivers should plan for backups because the new speed limit through here is 45 miles per hour.
On surface streets, cars and trucks are funneled off Ina Rd. and onto side streets that lead to Orange Grove and Cortaro Farms Rd.
Some drivers caught in delays on Cortaro Farms told KGUN9 they think the delays and detours lead to a traffic mess.
From her taco cart along Cortaro Farms, these crowded streets are a beautiful sight to Jimena Jimenez, “We like to make people happy through our food,” she said while passing two Sonoran hotdogs to a customer.
Jimenez says the increase in traffic has led to an increase in people pulling into her dirt parking lot to grab something to eat, “With the traffic and everything it has been better.”
Since moving to this location three years ago the Jimenez family business has typically been a dinner spot for locals but now they’re busy open to close, “We have seen a lot of new faces and they continue to come back so it is definitely a plus.”
ADOT says the two-year timeline is needed because the project has several phases.
Contractors must remove the current bridge over the freeway, lower the interstate and widen it to four lanes each way, build a bridge over the freeway and the railroad tracks.
The entire project is expected to cost nearly $125 million dollars and be completed in Spring 2019.
