New phase of South Mountain Freeway Project underway in Ahwatukee

AHWATUKEE, Ariz. (KSAZ) - Arizona Department of Transportation traffic maintenance crews received word at around 8:30 this morning and immediately started placing barricades across Pecos Road at 17th Avenue in Ahwatukee.

The SkyFOX drone was overhead getting a bird's eye view of the work.

"This is just another sign of progress on the South Mountain Freeway Project," Dustin Krugel said.

Krugel with ADOT says this small stretch of Pecos Road is part of a 22-mile long freeway project that crews have not been able to work on because it provided access to roughly 800 homes in the Foothills Reserve community.

Until today, when the City of Phoenix opened the Chandler Boulevard expansion.

"The length of the road that we are opening today is about 1.2 miles," Ray Dovlina said. "The cost is a little over a million dollars to build. This is very exciting. We are happy to open this, it's another important connection for the community, better quality of life. It's all about making the community a safer place and having more connectivity across the area."

The next several weeks will bring major change.

"The pavement you see, Pecos Road west of 17th Avenue, we'll be starting to tear that pavement up and doing a lot of clearing and grubbing, that means removing," Krugel said. "A lot of tree, the brushes will be installing some drainage pipes. That's some of the work we will see in the next month or two in the area."

ADOT is asking anyone who does drive though the area to be aware and pay attention to the barricades, the road closed signs, and the new speed limits that have been posted so that you stay safe.