Sunset Road – Silverbell Road to I-10

For more than 30 years, Tucson commuters contended with limited access across the Santa Cruz River and connections to I-10 after the flood of 1983 washed away the Sunset Road Bridge over the Santa Cruz River. The restriction in east-west mobility reached a critical point in 2013 when the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) announced the Ina Road Project, which would close the Ina Road traffic interchange (TI) at I-10 and Ina Road Bridge over the Santa Cruz River in 2017 for reconstruction.

In November 2013, Consor received notice-to-proceed and the project team was faced with the challenge of rebuilding this vital east-west connection along a new Sunset Road alignment with a scheduled construction completion date prior to ADOT beginning construction on the Ina Road Project. The Sunset Road Project includes a new three-lane, multi-modal arterial roadway with paved shoulders, an 8-ft. shared-use path on the south side of the roadway, a 5-ft. pedestrian path on the north side and a new 720-ft. bridge across the perennially flowing Santa Cruz River. The entire project team – designers, contractor and public agencies – rose to the occasion accelerating the Sunset Road project schedule allowing for opening one day before the closures for the Ina Road Project commenced.