Interstate 11 To Be Constructed In Arizona

The I-11 could have a significant impact on the Arizona economy and the overall state budget. I-11 will be a high-capacity, north-south interstate freeway ultimately connecting Canada and Mexico through the western United States. I-11 will be the first technologically advanced “smart” interstate highway in the country.

The interstate will help bolster the state’s $24.2 billion sports and tourism sector and could contribute a $35-45 billion dollar increase to the Arizona state budget. However, there is some push back from conservation groups about the proposed highway.

We welcomed former Mayor of the City of Maricopa, Christian Price, who will head up the I-11 Coalition, to Arizona Horizon. The I-11 Coalition is studying the next phase of developing Arizona’s newest freeway.

Is I-11 in the middle of an idea or done deal?

“In map 21, Congress basically said, ‘We think that two major cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix should be connected together.’ In fact there the only two major cities in the country with over a million people without a direct connection freeway,” said Price.

He continued to say that they did go through the plan to make this connection; however, “the problem is they left the rest of it to say well, ‘now what do you do?'” said Price.

“So you have to figure out do we take this all the way up to Nogales, do we take it on up beyond Las Vegas. We simply need more freeways in the west than we do now,” said Price.

Did the first study go from Nogales to Vegas?

“That’s basically called the Tier 1 EIS, and again you didn’t have to do that from Wickenburg to Las Vegas because Congress had already designated it. When they get involved you don’t have to go through any studies, they just point your finger and that’s a done deal,” said Price.

Price also explained that railways have not been considered for this project considering the high cost and the fact that they are not popular in the west or in the country.