US 93 in Arizona

According to Existingcountries, US 93 is a US Highway in the US state of Arizona. The road forms a north-south route that follows a northwesterly loop through the west and center of the state. The road connects Phoenix to Las Vegas, and runs in the state of Arizona between US 60 at Wickenburg and the Nevada border. The route is very lonely with virtually no villages along the way. The road is 322 kilometers long.

Travel directions

The road begins at the intersection with US 60 in Wickenburg, a town about 60 kilometers from Phoenix. The road then runs through the desert to the northwest, at an altitude of about 900 meters. The next village is no less than 120 kilometers away. The road follows a route through a lonely desert mountain range. The road can nevertheless be called spectacular and has 2×2 lanes here and there. The Burro Creek Bridge in particular is an interesting object along the way. Occasionally there are intersections with local roads, but usually they are not paved. The only village on the 220 kilometers between Wickenburg and Kingman is so small that no population is known. After a long drive, the connection with Interstate 40 follows. US 93 is double -numbered from Exit 71 to Exit 48 for 37 kilometers with I-40, the highway that passes Kingman, the only town on the entire route. Kingman is immediately a regional center for northwestern Arizona. Interstate 40 connects the Los Angeles metropolitan area with places like Flagstaff and Albuquerque to the east and spans vast distances. At Kingman, US 93 exits again for another 115 miles without any space on the road to the Nevada border. The road has endless straights and largely has 2×2 lanes. The landscape is desolate and impressive. One then descends slowly to the valley of the Colorado River, which also forms the border. On the border is the Hoover Dam, over which US 93 runs. The Hoover Dam separates the large Lake Mead, which provides Las Vegas ‘ water supply, from the lower valley of the Colorado River.

History

According to anycountyprivateschools.com, although US 93 was created in 1926, it did not come to Arizona until 1935, when the route was extended from Nevada to Kingman. In 1968, US 93 was extended even further to Wickenburg, given the rapid growth of the Phoenix and Las Vegas conurbations from the 1960s, and US 93 links these cities. US 93 then ended at US 89, but US 89 was scrapped south of Flagstaff in 1992, extending US 93 a short distance to US 60 in Wickenburg.

US 93 was later widened to a 2×2 divided highway. In the early to mid-2000s, significant portions of US 93 between Wickenburg and I-40 east of Kingman were widened to 2×2 lanes, but not on all sections. In 2010, the doubling between Kingman and the Nevada border was completed.

Mileposts

The mile markers of US 93 are striking, normally they should run from south to north, but this happens in Arizona from north to south, mile 0 is on the border with Nevada. This is probably historically determined, previously US 466 was planned on this route from the Nevada border to Kingman, so it is a route from west to east and a mile 0 on the border with Nevada is correct. This explanation is plausible because while the number US 93 was already routed over US 466 in 1935, it did not appear on signposts until the early 1950s. With the later extension from Kingman to Wickenburg, the existing numbering of mileposts has simply been extended, resulting in a series of mile markers running the wrong way.

Hoover Dam Bypass

See also Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.

To relieve the winding and narrow route over the Hoover Dam, a bridge has been built about half a kilometer downstream over the Colorado, which hangs about 280 meters above the river. The bridge has 4 lanes and was opened on October 16, 2010.

Future

US 93 is part of a major geographic north-south corridor through the western United States. Between the two north-south routes I-15 and I-25, there is more than a thousand kilometers here, and US 93 is a potential corridor for trade growth between Mexico and Canada. US 93 is therefore being upgraded in phases to 2×2 lanes, but it is considered unnecessary to make it a full highway due to the low traffic volumes and the very limited number of at-grade intersections. Nevertheless, the hope is that US 93 can eventually be renumbered as Interstate 11, between Phoenix and Las Vegas. In 2018, $155 million was allocated to double the remaining portions of US 93 to 2×2 lanes and build some connections.

Traffic intensities

Traffic intensities are quite low. The double numbering with the I-40 has the most traffic with 21,500 vehicles per 24 hours in 2007, but the rest of the route fluctuates between 6,500 and 8,000 vehicles per 24 hours.