Town of Florence and Pinal County are working together to develop the final phase of widening Hunt Highway, along with other infrastructure improvements to improve traffic flow.
Pinal plans to continue building the State Route 24 eastward and wants to create a new north-south route connecting SR24 to Florence in the Central Arizona Parkway area. SR 24 currently ends at Ironwood Road.
Pinal County has invested $35M in the last five years to improve Hunt highways and Ellsworth Road. Including working on the final phase of widening Hunt Highway to five lanes from Magma Road to Franklin Road. Design is expected to be completed this year.
Other future projects and connections include:
- A study to widen Attaway Road to five lanes between SR 287 and Hunt Highway.
- Coordinating with Union Pacific Railroad and the Arizona Corporation Commission to widen the rail crossing.
- A highway that mostly follows along the west side of the Central Arizona Project canal, which Pinal is calling the future Central Arizona Parkway. The plan is to build it in phases from north to south, eventually reaching the Arizona Farms Road alignment.
- An environmental report to continue building SR 24 and the first phase of Central Arizona Parkway down to Ocotillo Road.
- Plans are for four-lane interim roads with enough right of way for eight lanes in the future, for both the SR 24 extension as well as Central Arizona Parkway. The second phase of the parkway would be from Ocotillo Road to the Skyline Drive alignment.
Pinal is currently working on acquiring the funding needed for the projects. (Source)