Sundt is hitting the road for another extension of the Valley Metro Light Rail system in Greater Phoenix.
The 1.9-mile Gilbert Road Extension in Mesa will stretch the system beyond the Central Mesa extension on Main Street to Gilbert Road. Scheduled for completion in 2019, the $113 million transportation project consists of two stations and a park-and-ride on the west side of Gilbert Road. The project will provide the ability to draw more light-rail passengers from the East Valley and bring more development opportunities to central Mesa.
The joint venture with Stacy and Witbeck will construct a roundabout on the route. The multimodal roundabout allows for cars, bikes and pedestrians to move freely, and when a train is present, the east and west traffic remains free-flowing. This innovative traffic control measure is the first of its kind at a four-way intersection on a light-rail project in the U.S.
Construction on the extension started in October 2016. Temporary lighting and traffic lights have been installed along Main Street from Mesa Drive to Gilbert Road and the median has been removed to make way for underground utility work.
The joint venture team recently completed the award-winning Northwest Extension. In 2008, the team completed more than half of the original 20-mile starter section of the Valley Metro Light Rail transit system (Line Section 4 and Line Section 5), plus the system’s maintenance and operations facility.