Source: Town of Queen Creek
It is no secret the Town of Queen Creek and the surrounding areas have experienced substantial growth and with that growth has come traffic to the Town’s roadways. With this in mind, the Town now has a plan to develop two major arterial roadways from Germann to the future extension of State Route 24.
The Queen Creek Town Council recently voted to approve an Intergovernmental Agreement with the City of Mesa for design and construction of Signal Butte Road from Germann to State Route 24 at $12M and acceptance of terms for design and construction of Meridian Road from Germann to State Route 24.
“The construction of these roads will be beneficial to our residents and neighbors,” said Queen Creek Mayor Gail Barney. “As our Town grows, we want to ensure safety for all of the motorists driving on our roadways.”
With the population of Queen Creek and the San Tan Valley area estimated to hit 200,000 within the next seven years, the Town’s roadways will continue to add more drivers and vehicles. As State Route 24 is the preferred freeway access point for Queen Creek and San Tan Valley drivers, and will be completed to Ironwood Road in approximately 2022, having additional north-south roadways is crucial to the traveling public.
After working through Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) to analyze future traffic patterns based on growth, it was determined that extending both Signal Butte and Meridian roads to State Route 24 is necessary to alleviate the traffic on Ellsworth and Ironwood roads.
“Anyone who lives in Queen Creek and the San Tan Valley area knows that Ironwood and Ellsworth Roads are already over capacity; therefore, Signal Butte and Meridian Roads will also need to connect to State Route 24 when constructed in order to resolve the regional traffic issues. We reached out to Pinal County and the City of Mesa to put agreements in place to ensure that happens,” said Public Works Director Troy White.
As Mesa does not currently have improvements to Signal Butte Road in their current capital improvement plan, the Town of Queen Creek will agree to initially fund the improvements to Signal Butte Road, with reimbursement up to $7M from the City of Mesa by the end of 2030. The Town and Pinal County will fund the initial three-lane roadway on the east side of the existing Meridian Road alignment.
The construction of both Signal Butte and Meridian Roads will begin in fiscal year 2019-20. The total project costs to be financed will be $16M.