PHOENIX – Crews on Thursday night finished work on a project that has added room for northbound Interstate 17 traffic using the exit to Loop 303 and Sonoran Desert Drive in north Phoenix.

The Arizona Department of Transportation has opened a second lane leading into and along the northbound I-17 exit at Loop 303.

The new exit lane is designed to ease traffic backups, especially during afternoon rush hours, ADOT officials stated in a release.

Crews last night finished lane striping at the Loop 303 exit. Temporary work zone barrier walls were removed earlier this week.

The $1.3 million project is being done ahead of a larger project starting next year that will construct direct freeway-to-freeway ramps at the I-17/Loop 303 interchange, according to ADOT.

That improvement, which also will widen Loop 303 between I-17 and 51st Avenue, is the first project funded under Proposition 479 approved by Maricopa County voters and implemented by the Maricopa Association of Governments.

Proposition 479 funding includes a regional half-cent sales tax for transportation improvement projects in the Valley.

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