State Route 24 (SR 24), also known as the Gateway Freeway or the Williams Gateway Freeway, is a

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

in the extreme southeastern region of the

Phoenix Metropolitan Area The Phoenix metropolitan area, also known as the Valley of the Sun, the Salt River Valley, metro Phoenix, or The Valley, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the Southwestern United States, with its largest principal city being the c ...

. The roadway is planned as a controlled-access highway to move traffic from the southeastern suburbs of Phoenix to planned ones in northwestern

Pinal County Pinal County is a county in the central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. According to the 2020 census, the population of the county was 425,264, making it Arizona's third-most populous county. The county seat is Florence. The county was est ...

. It is the lowest-numbered state route in Arizona. The first mile from Loop 202 to Ellsworth Road opened on May 4, 2014. An extension to Ironwood Drive opened in 2022, with the completion of "Interim Phase II"; the first mile of this extension from Ellsworth Road to Williams Field Road opened on April 1, 2022, with the remainder following on August 11. Planning for future sections has been halted until studies for the Pinal North-South Freeway are completed to confirm how the two freeways will intersect. In earlier planning stages, the freeway was formerly labeled State Route 802 (SR 802).

Route description

State Route 24 is a

controlled-access A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

highway at the intersection of

Loop 202 Arizona State Route 202 (SR 202) or Loop 202 (202L) is a semi-beltway circling the eastern and southern areas of the Phoenix metropolitan area in central Maricopa County, Arizona. It traverses the eastern end and the southern en ...

's southern leg (Santan Freeway) and Hawes Road, extending southeast near the

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Mesa Gateway Airport – also known as Phoenix–Mesa Airport – is an international airport in southeastern Mesa, Arizona, located approximately southeast of Phoenix, in Maricopa County. effective May 15, 2025, AirportIQ 5010, GCR Inc. ...

. The road continues along the Frye Road alignment to the

line, where it has a diamond interchange with Meridian Road. Shortly after crossing into Pinal County, State Route 24 ends at an intersection with Ironwood Road. Within Pinal County, State Route 24 is planned to continue further east, intersecting a future north-south freeway under study, and reaching an eastern terminus in the general vicinity of Florence Junction, where

US 60 U.S. Route 60 is a major east–west United States highway, traveling from southwestern Arizona to the Atlantic Ocean coast in Virginia. The highway's eastern terminus is in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where it is known as General Booth Bouleva ...

and AZ 79 intersect.

History

Freeway origins

The first mention of a controlled-access highway facility in the Gateway Freeway area occurred in 2003, when the

Maricopa Association of Governments Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) is a Council of Governments (COG) that serves as the regional agency for the greater Maricopa region in Arizona, United States. This includes the Phoenix area and the neighboring urbanized area in Pinal C ...

(MAG)'s ''Southeast Maricopa/Northern Pinal County Area Transportation Study'' identified a freeway starting at Route 202, passing by the Williams Gateway Airport (now

), and extending east into

, having its eastern terminus at

Route 60 The following highways are numbered 60: International * Asian Highway 60 * European route E60 Australia * Bruxner Highway * Dawson Highway (Rolleston to Gladstone) – Queensland State Route 60 Brazil * BR-060 Canada * Alberta Highway 6 ...

. This new freeway was listed as one of 5 "potential new regional facility (facilities)" that would benefit from right-of-way protection. That same year, the Williams Gateway corridor was identified as a new corridor in

Maricopa County Maricopa County () is a county in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census the population was 4,420,568, or about 62% of the state's total, making it the fourth-most populous county in the United States and ...

's Regional Transportation Plan, with construction for the segment within the county planned in the 2016–2020 timeframe. However, the implementation of the plan was based on the assumption that the ½¢

sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...

dedicated to transportation would be extended past its expiration at the end of 2005. In November 2004, voters in Maricopa County approved Proposition 400, an extension to the existing sales tax funding transportation improvements. A portion of those funds are earmarked toward improvements of the county's regional freeway system, which experiences significant volumes of

traffic Traffic is the movement of vehicles and pedestrians along land routes. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly an ...

in parts of the

. These improvements are made either through expansion of existing

s, or the development of new freeway corridors. The Maricopa County portion of the Williams Gateway corridor, as a part of the county's Regional Transportation Plan, was included in the list of projects to be funded with the sales tax. In 2006, the Pinal County Corridors Definition Study took place, further finalizing various freeways in Pinal County, per the request of the state legislature. Of the five freeway corridors identified, the list was trimmed down to three. Funding was also set aside for the environmental studies for these three freeways. Using said funding, MAG identified a preferred alignment for Route 802 within Maricopa County. The alignment travels southeast from Route 202, between the airport and the former General Motors Desert Proving Grounds, until it turns to the east at Frye Road, continuing eastward to the Pinal County line. In response to a projected budget shortfall of $6.6 billion brought on by the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

, MAG voted to modify its Regional Transportation Plan by suspending funding to numerous projects during a meeting on October 28, 2009. The Williams Gateway Freeway was among the projects affected, since the construction of most of the Maricopa County portion of the route—the alignment between Ellsworth Road and Meridian Road—was deferred to 2026 or later. An interim roadway between the Santan Freeway and Ellsworth Road would still be constructed in the 2016–2020 time period. In a 2012 map from the unrelated Interstate 11 project, the entirety of the Phoenix Freeway System was shown, including the three unbuilt Pinal County freeways, including the Gateway Freeway, shown as "Future Corridors".

Phase I

In 2011, the City of Mesa announced it would provide $148 million (2011 USD) to advance construction of the first mile of the freeway, between the Santan Freeway and Ellsworth Road, to provide access to the eastern side of

. The Arizona State Transportation Board moved construction of the interim facility from fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2012, and renumbered the freeway to State Route 24. The interim facility contains a

semi-directional T interchange In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, using ...

with the Santan Freeway, consisting of four ramps; additional traffic lanes on the Santan Freeway; a half-diamond interchange at Ellsworth Road; and a two-lane roadway mainline connecting the two termini of the roadway. On March 30, 2012, Mesa officials announced plans to start construction the following Friday near Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. Mesa Mayor Scott Smith and Arizona Department of Transportation Director John Halikowski attended the groundbreaking ceremony. Mesa officials said in a statement that by issuing bonds, the city was able to speed up construction on the project by four years.

Phase II

Route 24's extension, opened in August 2022, has been labeled as an "interim" phase. This is due to the fact that the freeway lanes will travel on the ramps and service roads at each intersection. Interim Phase II built two general-purpose lanes in each direction. Ultimately, ADOT plans to have three general-purpose lanes, one auxiliary lane, and one

HOV lane A high-occupancy vehicle lane (also known as an HOV lane, carpool lane, diamond lane, 2+ lane, and transit lane or T2 or T3 lanes) is a restricted traffic lane reserved for the exclusive use of vehicles with a driver and at least one passenger, ...

in each direction. These updates will coincide with the build-out of the actual interchanges at each new intersection, which are anticipated to be completed during Phase V of MAG's Regional Transportation Plan. Bridges over Ellsworth Road were also added to the plan. The first mile of Interim Phase II opened on April 1, 2022, from Ellsworth Road to an extended Williams Field Road. This was done in order to provide additional access to and from Bell Bank Park (now known as Arizona Athletic Grounds), a sports complex adjacent to the road. The remainder, to Ironwood Drive, opened on August 11. This stretch includes junctions with Signal Butte Road and Meridian Road, which was extended north from Combs Road to meet SR 24, replacing a rural avenue known as Moeur Road.

Further extensions

No specific alignment of Route 24 has been set within Pinal County. The study that would determine the preferred alignment for the state route was suspended to allow it to advance in conjunction with the study for the North-South Corridor. However, study maps from the

Arizona Department of Transportation The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT, ) is an Arizona state government agency charged with facilitating mobility within the state. In addition to managing the state's state highways, highway system, the agency is also involved with pu ...

show that the freeway's study area in Pinal County runs between the end of the Maricopa County segment and the intersection of U.S. 60 and Arizona 79 in the vicinity of Florence Junction. However, no funds have been identified for the Pinal County segment.

Exit list

References

External links

{{Attached KML, display=title,inline 024 024 Transportation in Maricopa County, Arizona Transportation in Pinal County, Arizona Transportation in Mesa, Arizona