By Sean Holstege | The Republic | azcentral.com
Work crews are starting to widen the Hunt Highway in Pinal County.
The project comes not a day too early for traffic-weary San Tan Valley area residents. But they will have to wait years for full relief.
The Hunt Highway connects Florence with Queen Creek and has been a thorn in the side of commuters. The highway also has become a symbol of what happens when new subdivisions are built without planning for roads.
First came thousands of new homes after the Johnson Ranch subdivision opened, near the county line southeast of Chandler Heights. By midway through the past decade, the surrounding San Tan region was one of the fastest-growing in the nation.
With homes came people, and with people, vehicles. But roads weren’t built to match the influx of people. So, Hunt Highway remained a two-lane road, not equipped to handle the estimated average 25,000 vehicles a day that drive it. The 12-mile Pinal County stretch is designed for half as many cars.
