With the holiday season here, residents in the northern Asante area of Surprise are hoping for more traffic gifts this year.
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With the holiday season here, residents in the northern Asante area of Surprise are hoping for more traffic gifts this year.
It’s been a year of short-term improvements in the area, which city officials said has cut long traffic times in half at Grand and 163rd Avenue.
Now, the Surprise City Council is focused on three potential access points that have been selected as possible emergency evacuation routes for an area that basically has one way in and out.
Transportation Director Eric Boyles laid out for council two places on Jomax Road and one on Deer Valley Road that residents potentially could use for emergency access in the future.
Jomax from Dysart Road to 126th Drive could be a potential east-west access point, while an interchange with Grand on the west could be another one. The problem with the latter is there’s the BNSF railroad line that runs alongside Grand.
A third point on Deer Valley Road from 195th to 219th Avenue is also one of three access points that were selected out of seven initially chosen in September.
“Like I promised you, I’m going to put my foot on the gas and I’m not taking it off yet,” Boyles told the Council Dec. 3.
Vice Mayor Nick Haney, who serves District 1 that includes the discussed area, said travel times home have been cut in half with the improvements.
“Government does not move as fast as any of us would like,” Haney said during Boyles’ presentation. “However, we have consistently made progress each month, and I’m very proud of that.”
Having other access points will help to alleviate traffic on 163rd Avenue, especially at Grand Avenue, which has been a problem for years and getting worse as growth in the area continues.
It’s been a year now since crews added a third lane on Grand between Loop 303 and 163rd. That was also when a second right turn lane was added on Grand for 163rd, reducing the bottleneck on Grand in the afternoon.
A series of improvements along 163rd were undertaken in late 2023 and throughout 2024 and are designed to reduce traffic for now.
In Phase 1 in March, the city added an additional northbound lane from Grand to Pat Tillman Boulevard, which solved the scalloped road problem coming off the busy street into the neighborhood.
A traffic signal was added in October at Happy Valley Road, a full year ahead of schedule.
“It’s not necessarily that folks are frustrated sitting in traffic,” Haney said. “It’s more so a safety issue. It’s really negatively affecting your quality of life. If your kid is consistently late to school that’s a major issue.”
Construction on the next phase began last month. Crews are widening 163rd by adding more lanes. The city is also undertaking drainage improvements, adding sidewalks and streetlights and expanding the intersection with Jomax Road.
Traffic signal improvements are planned for 163rd at Country Club Drive, Asante Boulevard, San Ysidro Road, Smoketree Drive and Desert Oasis Boulevard.
“Residents have a lot of concern about that number of traffic signals along that short span, but our guys do a very good job of timing and coordinating those intersections to provide maximum flow,” Boyles said.
Getting to Loop 303 from the Asante area is another concern for residents. Drivers need more help making the left turn out of the neighborhood, then quickly merging into the far right lane to get onto the highway headed southbound.
On the other side, a third left-turn lane for Grand was added on Loop 303 northbound off-ramp among other short-term improvements last month.
“These short-term improvements that were done aren’t the ultimate end-all, be-all, but it really did help the area and helped the traffic flow in the area,” Boyles said. “It really gave us our best shot with what we had out there.”
A series of pavement rehabilitation and striping projects are planned on Grand from Loop 303 to 163rd and two other spots on 163rd.
Future phase improvements include the addition of a second right-turn lane on eastbound Grand to the southbound 303 on-ramp.
Plans are in the works to lengthen Loop 303 ramp lanes and create deceleration and acceleration lanes on Grand between 163rd Avenue and Deer Valley Road.
The addition of a third left-turn lane on the southbound 303 ramp for westbound Grand is coming, as is the addition of a fourth eastbound and westbound through lane on Grand at 163rd Avenue.
“In layman’s terms, we took a medium pizza and made it an extra large, just so that we can kind of get as much traffic through that intersection as possible,” Boyles said.
The city is working on final design of the projects with bids for work to go out in April.
Dale Lane has been another area of contention for the council and residents there over the last decade.
The mostly unpaved area is prone to flooding, causing an emergency problem.
In August, crews completed the 176th Drive emergency access road and improvements are coming to 171st Drive to give motorists another way out of the area.
Projects still under design include the Happy Valley Road widening project, which is still a couple of years away from construction.
That includes the road widening from 163rd to the city limits. The road also will get sidewalks, curbs and gutters and streetlights. Design is 60% completed and its expected to be two years away from construction.
The Maricopa Association of Governments has been coordinating a Grand Avenue Corridor Study, which is projecting traffic needs through 2050 for the stretch from Loop 303 to State Route 74.
ADOT, MCDOT, the city of Peoria and the BNSF Railway have teamed with MAG and Surprise on the study.
“You guys are growing so fast that we are kind of chasing our tail a little bit when it comes to improvements,” Strow told the council.
Strow said the short-term improvements MAG and the city have made so far won’t hold for long as growth continues in the area.
Nearly 200 people attended a public meeting MAG held in August, where it took suggestions from residents about the 303 and Grand interchanges.
The MAG Regional Council recently approved a request to program $4.2 million in funding for fiscal year 2025 for next phase interim improvements
Those include adding a second right turn lane off Grand onto southbound 303 and giving it a longer upramp by about 200 to 300 feet.
On the other side, officials want to add a third left-turn lane onto Grand for those exiting on the 303 northbound offramp.
Strow said final design on those projects are at 60% and construction should be started sometime next year.
The city will also benefit from seven projects that will be funded through Proposition 479, which voters passed in November.
“This is exciting news and I think this is a real win for the region and the city of Surprise,” Strow said.
Jason Stone can be reached at jstone@iniusa.org. We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Jason Stone
Senior News Editor | Surprise
Meet Jason
Jason Stone joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2019, after a distinguished three decade media career that included stops at the Arizona Republic, iHeart Media/Clear Channel and Beckett Sports Card magazine. He remembers when airports sold newspapers.
Community: He is a big supporter of the Valley's original sports team: The Phoenix Suns.
Education: Northern Arizona University with a BS in broadcast journalism and a minor in sports coaching.
Random Fact: The capital of Nebraska is Lincoln.
Hobbies: Surfing, backgammon and men who aren't afraid to cry.
