NAMPEYO, THE POTTER

Meeting Arizona's

AN ANNUAL traffic flow of three million vehicles annually has led to a scientific development of East Van Buren street on U. S. Highways 60, 70, 80 and 89 as part of the progressive improvement of national highways carried on through assistance of the National Recovery Program. The federal government has offered a labor program during the past few years which in the centers of population has given the Arizona Highway Depart ment an opportunity to sponsor needed projects and use federal labor and materials in highway improvement. Concrete proof of the need of this development was revealed in accurate statistics gathered by the Traffic Survey, utilizing an “electric eye” near Tempe and supplemental checks at various points along the route.

The survey found the average daily flow of traffic on the Phoenix-Tempe highway is 6,380 motor vehicles, a day and night average of 284 plus cars an hour, one each 13 seconds. A peak load of 12,000 cars daily has, however, been reached. Estimated on the basis of April traffic, calculations for 1937 indicate 2,640,796 vehicles will use the road, while the 1938 normal traffic increase may boost the total as high as 3,036,914 automobiles and trucks.

Elements that have influenced development of such projects in the light of increased traffic have been, according to engineers, proper routing to avoid congestion of traffic, expense of acquiring proper width of right-of-way, condition of pavement already in place and to be used as base for new road, and proper co-operation with city authorities in incorporated areas involving a dual responsibility for construction and maintenance.

In the Phoenix area these problems have been overcome with minimum construction, and excellent roadways that will withstand the future heavy loading were made available in the area where traffic has doubled in the past five years and a similiar increase is expected in the next five year period.

U. S. Highway 60 has been paved through Phoenix from the east to the northwest city limits as a series of National tional Recovery Municipal Projects. This paving job, as well as others on Highway 80 west of Phoenix, involved progressive

Van Buren Development In Phoenix Will Accommodate Three Million Cars Yearly Traffic Needs . . .

improvement wherein pavement in place was widened to four-lane development with two eight-foot parking lanes. A minimum right-of-way permitted construction struction of a 56 foot roadway with seven-foot planting area and five-foot sidewalk on each side.

The roadway section on East Van Buren from 16th street in Phoenix has been developed as far as Tempe with a 70-foot crown. A cement slab has been poured on each side of the pavement already in place to complete the section, with installation of a new underground cement tile line providing a system that will handle drainage of the entire project The concrete slab has been placed one inch below gutter grade to facilitate future topping. Van Buren street as far east of Phoenix as 24th Street has been given an asphaltic wearing surface. Within the most highly settled district, Washington Boulevard, an alternate route, has been developed over the full width of the hundred-foot right-ofway. On desert sections the subgrade has been completed to a 70-foot crown. A landscaping scheme has been carried ried out over the full width of the rightof-way on all these projects. Native flora transplanted from adjacent desert areas and the planting of citrus and palm trees will provide beautification of the routes supplemental to the major purpose of the project, which is to facilitate movement of rapidly increasing traffic, both local and intersectional.