10 Years Ago Way-Back When: Proposed Williams Gateway Freeway Was All Map + No Money

Hard to believe in retrospect:

Money lacking for Williams Gateway Freeway              

Amanda Keim May 26, 2009

East Valley Tribune

". . . When built, this will be the freeway taking air travelers to the passenger terminal at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, taking workers feeding the expected commercial boom near the airport and former GM Proving Grounds, and taking commuters living in the massive (but now conceptual) Superstition Vistas development, to and from their homes. _______________________________________________________________

FLASH-FORWARD TO THE FUTURE
Mesa foresees huge investment in roads near airport

By Gary Nelson, Tribune Contributor Apr 21, 2019

Mesa knows where it’s going in the Gateway area. It just doesn’t know how to get there.
The city is looking deeply into current development trends in hopes of figuring out when to build which roads for its high-flying southeastern corner.
By late spring the effort will result in what will be called the Southeast Mesa Land Use and Transportation Plan. . . the city has pushed its planning horizon out by another decade, focusing on the area from Southern Avenue going north to Germann Road, and Power Road going west to Meridian Road. The study area covers about 50 square miles.

The 2008 Gateway plan, coming as it did just as the Great Recession was sinking its talons into Arizona’s economy, foresaw a prosperous future that at the time seemed tenuous.
There were, for example, grand ideas for a 3,200-acre swath of the former General Motors Desert Proving Ground that had been purchased in 2006 by Scottsdale-based DMB Associates. A major resort complex planned for the north end of DMB’s holdings never materialized.

Among the developments:The DMB property, now named Eastmark, has consistently ranked among the top-selling master-planned communities in the country, and is now home to a major Apple Inc. operations center.
Harvard Investments is developing Cadence, a much smaller slice of the former GM property, as a residential and commercial center near the intersection of Loop 202 and State Route 24.
A development called Gallery Park was announced last year, promising a dense, urban-style mixed-use project at the northeast corner of Power and Ray roads.

Kevin Thompson, who represents southeast Mesa on the City Council, expects more to come, with Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport still the driving force that planners of the past decade expected it to be.

“It’s a hotbed right now for development,” Thompson said. “It’s one of the few locations that has land available, that has proximity to airport and rail as well as highways.”

________________________________________________________________________

 

 

_________________________________________________________________________

 

 

 

 

 

"It's important for economic development and it's important for congestion relief," said Mark Young, Queen Creek's intergovernmental liaison.
But when will it be built?
It doesn't appear that the money is there to bring the map to life.

Mesa officials are attempting yet again to round up the millions of dollars needed to design the freeway's first mile, to Ellsworth Road, and purchase the land needed for construction.
 

. . . There was an attempt to have the federal stimulus package pay for the design and right-of-way land purchases, but the project was deemed not "shovel-ready."

So Mesa is trying a different approach.
"I don't know if this is Plan No. 10 or 11," quipped Scott Butler, the city's director of government relations.
Today, the Maricopa Association of Governments' Regional Council will vote on a proposal that will allow Mesa to use $8 million in highway money to finance city-issued bonds. The $45 million raised by those bonds then will go toward design and land purchases.

"We think it's a great way to do it," Butler said.

. . . Federal funding could be tough to come by, especially since the freeway would travel through Rep. Jeff Flake's district - and Flake is not known for pursuing money for projects back home, Martyn said.
"Eventually, our highway user revenue funds will pick up again and ADOT will have the ability to pick up and fund these projects . . ,"

. . . Meanwhile, Queen Creek has plans to create a direct connection between Signal Butte and Meridian roads to take advantage of the freeway, even though it won't enter the town's borders.

Signal Butte is expected to be the bigger interchange of the two in Mesa, but that road effectively stops at Rittenhouse. Meridian is expected to attract development farther south, hence the proposed connection.
But that project, too, is contingent on development coming to the area.