Arizona State Route 101

State Loop 101
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap Loop 101 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by ADOT
Length	60.99 mi[1] (98.15 km)
Existed	1988–present
History	Fully completed in 2001
Major junctions
From	I-10 in Tolleson
	US 60 in Peoria I-17 in Phoenix SR 51 in Phoenix Loop 202 in Mesa US 60 in Tempe
To	Loop 202 in Chandler
Location
Counties	Maricopa
Highway system
Arizona State Highway System Interstate US State Unconstructed Former ← SR 99 → SR 143

Interchange of 101 (Pima Freeway) with Loop 202 (Red Mountain Freeway) in Mesa, with 101 through Scottsdale in the distance

Arizona State Route 101 (commonly referred to as Loop 101) is a semi-beltway looping around the northern end of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area in the United States. It connects several suburbs of Phoenix, including Tolleson, Glendale, Peoria, Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, and Chandler. Construction began in the late-1980s and was completed in 2001. Additional general purpose lanes and a high occupancy vehicle lane (HOV) are being constructed along the eastern stretch of Loop 101 from Scottsdale to Chandler, starting at Princess Drive to Loop 202 (the Santan Freeway).

Loop 101 has interchanges with almost all area freeways, including: Loop 202, US 60, SR 51, Interstate 17, and Interstate 10 along its 61-mile (98 km) route.

Loop 101 has various names along its route:

• Agua Fria Freeway in the west valley from I-10 to I-17
• Pima Freeway in the east valley from I-17 to Loop 202's Red Mountain Freeway
• Price Freeway from Loop 202's Red Mountain Freeway to Loop 202's Santan Freeway

Route description[]

Loop 101 begins as the Agua Fria Freeway west of Phoenix in Tolleson at a three-level interchange with Interstate 10. From that point, it heads north entering Phoenix then Glendale, passing State Farm Stadium and Gila River Arena. Continuing northward through Peoria, it passes the Peoria Sports Complex before entering northwestern Glendale and heading east just past the Arrowhead Towne Center mall. Loop 101 now heads eastward on the Beardsley Road alignment. The freeway enters northern Phoenix, and at milepost 23, Loop 101 intersects Interstate 17 near the Deer Valley Airport, 15 miles (24 km) north of Downtown Phoenix.

Continuing east as the Pima Freeway, it passes through the Union Hills area and then has an interchange with the northern terminus of SR 51 at milepost 29. East of its junction with SR 51, Loop 101 curves south through Scottsdale in the northeast valley on the Pima Road alignment. The freeway curves east and continues onto the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community just south of Via Linda providing access to Downtown Scottsdale, a large open-air power center called Scottsdale Pavilions, Scottsdale Community College, two casinos, and Scottsdale Fashion Square. Continuing south, Loop 101 encounters an interchange with the Red Mountain Freeway portion of Loop 202 in Tempe at milepost 51, near the campus of Arizona State University. This interchange is partially built over the Salt River.

After this interchange, Loop 101 is now the Price Freeway, and interchanges with US 60 at milepost 55 before entering Chandler. Loop 101 provides access to Chandler Fashion Center just prior to concluding at milepost 61 at an interchange with the Santan Freeway portion of Loop 202.^[2]

History[]

Old colored Arizona Loop 101 shield that has been phased out.

The highway originally was assigned two different route numbers along its path. The Agua Fria Freeway portion was initially designated SR 417;^[3] the section along the Pima/Price Freeways was to be SR 117.^[4] A portion of Loop 101 between the Superstition Freeway and McDowell Road near Scottsdale had been proposed as the "Indian Bend Freeway" (SR 117) in 1962.^[5] The Loop 101 designation was first assigned on December 18, 1987, at which time the South Mountain Freeway and the portion of the San Tan Freeway between I-10 and Price Road were also designated to be part of Loop 101.^[6] On July 19, 1991, the proposed South Mountain Freeway was renumbered as part of Loop 202.^[7] The San Tan Freeway portion of Loop 101 has never officially been renumbered, though this freeway section has been signed as Loop 202 since its opening.

An exit in Northeast Phoenix at 64th Street started construction in January 2008, and completed construction in the end of Q3 2008.^[8] It was finally opened to traffic in May 2015. Construction of Freeway Management System (FMS) for this segment of Loop 101. Using sensors, freeway cameras and the latest technology, the Valley’s Intelligent Transportation Systems keep traffic flowing by providing incident management personnel with information about real-time traffic conditions. Construction was completed on the segment between I-17 and State Route 51 in September 2009.

In 1990, after several years of negotiation with the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, the state of Arizona paid the tribe $247 million for right of way for the eastern leg of Loop 101 from (north to south) south of Via Linda to the north bank of the Salt River.^[9]

The resulting alignment kept all four corners of each interchange along the roughly 7-mile leg on tribal land, allowing the community to control and benefit from development. The tribe formed a development arm, Salt River DevCo, to manage these and other community developable properties.^[10]

On August 26, 2010, comedian Robert Schimmel was involved in an accident on the road in Scottsdale in which his daughter was driving; their car flipped onto the side of the road. Schimmel died from his injuries on September 3, 2010.^[11]

Speed enforcement[]

In 2006, Scottsdale installed speed enforcement cameras along its stretch of Loop 101 to combat the high fatality rate along its section of freeway. The photo enforcement was based on inductive sheeting on the freeway bed located at six fixed positions along the freeway - three in each direction. The photo enforcement was in a trial phase, with the trial ending in December 2006. In January 2007, the program was authorized by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano to resume in February 2007.^[12]

There had been much criticism of the program after its inception. For instance, in May 2006, a vehicle was allegedly clocked traveling at 147 miles per hour (237 km/h) on Loop 101. Scottsdale police arrested Lawrence Pargo soon afterwards. According to the manufacturer Hyundai,^[13] the vehicle the suspect was driving had a centrifugal governor, and was only capable of traveling 137 mph (220 km/h).^[14]

The system was calibrated to ticket anyone traveling 76 mph (122 km/h) or greater, as 65 mph (105 km/h) was the predetermined speed limit. The system was also designed for night time use and utilized equipment with a high intensity flash and full motion video capture to take pictures of fast-moving objects.^[15]

Money from a typical $162 ticket went to the following:

• $78 (approximately) - Went to state surcharges for the Criminal Justice Enhancement Fund and other designated state programs.
• $42 - Went to Redflex Traffic Systems, the city's photo enforcement contractor.
• $32 - Went to covering general operating costs for the program, including city rental payments to Redflex for the equipment and other police, prosecutor and court costs.
• $10 - Went for a fund used for court operations enhancements.[1]

Photo enforcement along Loop 101 ended in 2010.^[16]

Exit list[]

The entire route is in Maricopa County.

Location	mi[1][17]	km	Exit	Destinations	Notes
Tolleson	0.00	0.00	1	I-10 (Papago Freeway) – Phoenix, Los Angeles	Counterclockwise terminus; signed as exits 1A (west) and 1B (east); exit 133B on I-10
Phoenix	0.72	1.16	2	McDowell Road (Tres Rios Freeway) to SR 30	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	1.74	2.80	3	Thomas Road
	2.75	4.43	4	Indian School Road
	3.79	6.10	5	Camelback Road
Glendale	4.78	7.69	6	Cardinals Way	Formerly Bethany Home Road
	5.29	8.51	7A	Maryland Avenue	HOV interchange
	5.78	9.30	7B	Glendale Avenue
Glendale–Peoria line	6.88	11.07	8	Northern Avenue	Future Northern Parkway
Peoria	8.09	13.02	9	Olive Avenue
	9.10	14.65	10	Peoria Avenue
	10.01	16.11	11	US 60 (Grand Avenue)	Northbound exit and southbound entrance; former US 89/SR 93
	10.54	16.96		91st Avenue to US 60 (Grand Avenue)	Southbound exit and northbound entrance; referred to internally as exit 11A[1]
	11.47	18.46	12	Thunderbird Road
	12.30	19.79	Bridge over Skunk Creek
	13.53	21.77	14	Bell Road
Glendale	14.59	23.48	15	Union Hills Drive	No southbound exit; southbound access is via exit 16
			Cardinal direction change: Western leg (north–south) / Northern leg (west–east)[a]
	15.49	24.93	16	Beardsley Road west / Union Hills Drive	No eastbound exit
	16.02	25.78	17	75th Avenue
	17.02	27.39	18	67th Avenue
	17.96	28.90	19	59th Avenue
Glendale–Phoenix line	19.86	31.96	20	51st Avenue
Phoenix	20.97	33.75	22	35th Avenue	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	22.67– 25.07	36.48– 40.35	23	27th Avenue	Signed as exit 23A westbound
				I-17 (Black Canyon Freeway) – Flagstaff, Phoenix	Signed as exits 23B (north) and 23C (south) westbound; exit 214C on I-17; westbound exit to NB I-17 includes direct exit ramp onto Deer Valley Road
			Agua Fria Freeway transitions to Pima Freeway
	22.98	36.98	24	19th Avenue	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
	23.96	38.56	25	7th Avenue
	24.96	40.17	26	7th Street
	26.99	43.44	28	Cave Creek Road
	28.29– 29.49	45.53– 47.46	29	SR 51 south	North end of SR 51; exit 15A on SR 51
				SR 51 south	HOV access only; westbound exit and eastbound entrance
	30.09	48.43	31	Tatum Boulevard
	31.18	50.18	32	56th Street
	32.36	52.08	33	64th Street
Phoenix–Scottsdale line	33.30	53.59	34	Scottsdale Road
Scottsdale	34.33	55.25	35	Hayden Road
	35.36	56.91	36	Princess Drive / Pima Road
			Cardinal direction change: Northern leg (west–east) / Eastern leg (north–south)[b]
	36.57	58.85	38	Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard / Bell Road	No southbound signage for Bell Road
	37.36	60.13	39	Raintree Drive / Thunderbird Road	No northbound signage for Thunderbird Road
	38.86	62.54	40	Cactus Road
	39.84	64.12	41	Shea Boulevard
Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community	41.13	66.19	42	90th Street / Pima Road
	42.16	67.85	43	Via de Ventura
	43.22	69.56	44	Talking Stick Way / Indian Bend Road
	44.28	71.26	45	McDonald Drive
	45.28	72.87	46	Chaparral Road
	46.28	74.48	47	Indian School Road
	47.30	76.12	48	Thomas Road
	48.31	77.75	49	McDowell Road
	49.32	79.37	50	McKellips Road
Mesa	50.03– 50.64	80.52– 81.50	Bridge over the Salt River
			51A-B	Loop 202 (Red Mountain Freeway) – Sky Harbor Airport	Signed as exits 51A (west) and 51B (east); exit 9 on Loop 202
			Pima Freeway transitions to Price Freeway
Tempe	51.34	82.62	52	Rio Salado Parkway / University Drive
	52.34	84.23	53	Broadway Road
	53.34	85.84	54	Southern Avenue / Baseline Road	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	53.54– 55.14	86.16– 88.74	55A-B	US 60 (Superstition Freeway) – Globe, Phoenix	Northbound signed as exits 55A (west) and 55B (east), southbound signed as exits 55A (east) and 55B (west); exits 176A-B on US 60
			55C	Baseline Road / Southern Avenue	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	55.36	89.09	56	Guadalupe Road
	56.37	90.72	57	Elliot Road
Chandler	57.36	92.31	58	Warner Road
	58.37	93.94	59	Ray Road
	59.37	95.55	60	Chandler Boulevard	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	59.67– 60.99	96.03– 98.15	61A	Price Road	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
			61D	Loop 202 east	HOV access only; exit 50C on Loop 202
			61B-C	Loop 202 (Santan Freeway)	Clockwise terminus; signed as exits 61B (west) and 61C (east); exit 50A on Loop 202
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       HOV only       Incomplete access       Route transition

See also[]

•  U.S. roads portal
•  Arizona portal
• Roads and freeways in metropolitan Phoenix
• Loop 202
• Loop 303

References[]

External links[]

• Agua Fria Loop 101 construction history
• Pima Loop 101 construction history
• Price Loop 101 construction history
• Loop 101 Current Projects & Construction - AZ DOT

Route map: