The SuperRedTan Interchange is a symmetrical four-level freeway interchange in eastern
Mesa
A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a ...
,
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...
. Completed in 2007, the interchange provides access between
U.S. Route 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 Pacific Avenue, in the ...
and Loop 202. It is fully directional, meaning that a motorist traveling towards the interchange in any direction can exit onto either direction of the intersecting
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 ...
. The interchange is said to be the first in the Valley of the Sun to include design icons on the support columns in addition to the retaining walls. There are no HOV connections at this time, although they are planned in the future.
Etymology
The name SuperRedTan is a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsarea freeways that intersect at this point. The name borrows the bolded portions of the following to form the word SuperRedTan.
* Superstition Freeway
* Red Mountain Freeway
* Santan Freeway
Construction
In order to successfully create the SuperRedTan Interchange, twelve bridges were built for a combined bridge deck area of . All of the bridges were built using cast-in-place concrete, with post-tensioned box girders. There was of mechanically stabilized earth walls with some segments reaching up to tall. of soundwalls were also built within the project area to minimize the amount of decibels that the interchange was projected to generate the surrounding communities. The SuperRedTan Interchange project also consisted of widening the Superstition Freeway between Power and Crismon Roads, and constructing Loop 202 from scratch from the interchange north to University Drive. Phased
construction
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and ...
lasted four years, from 2003 to 2007, and cost $116 million USD. It was funded through Proposition 300, which was passed in 1985 by
Maricopa County
Maricopa County is in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,420,568, making it the state's most populous county, and the fourth-most populous in the United States. It contains about ...