Funding out of Washington has now been secured for a project in central Arizona that will transform a busy two-lane highway into a highway with four lanes.
The federal Department of Transportation is awarding $26 million for work on the southeast-to-northwest U.S. Route 93 just above the town of Wickenburg.
The funding is coming through the agency’s Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant program and is going to the Arizona Department of Transportation for the road work.
In a statement, Jennifer Toth, director of the Arizona Department of Transportation, said dividing Route 93 from Wickenburg to Arizona State Route 89 “will enhance both safety and mobility in the area.”
The town of Wickenburg may have only around 8,000 residents according to the US Census, but traffic on the connecting Route 93 continues to increase, especially as that route eventually leads to Las Vegas.
Altogether, Route 93 is nearly 100 miles in length, with large portions of it in recent years transformed into a four-lane divided highway.
The new work on the route will also include the building of a roundabout at the point where 93 meets with Route 89, eight-foot shoulders, and dedicated right-turn and left-turn lanes.
A bridge with a pedestrian walkway will also be built on a section of 93 where it meets with a BNSF railroad track.
Originally built in 1935 and slicing through vast desert lands, Route 93 was twice extended southwards in subsequent decades. The route is now regarded, said Toth, as a “key link” between the larger metro Phoenix and Las Vegas.
November 1, 2024
By Garry Boulard
Photo Courtesy of Arizona Department of Transportation
