Welcome to the Roadscapes Wednesday segment! Each week here on Geek Alabama, Roadscapes Wednesday will feature roads and infrastructure related topics. Geek Alabama Editor / Publisher Nathan Young is often called the “road geek” for a good reason, Nathan loves roads and loves talking about roads!
Interstate 17 is only about 146 miles long, but few highways in America change this much before they reach the end.
Beginning in metropolitan Phoenix, I-17 passes through some of Arizona’s heaviest urban traffic before leaving the Sonoran Desert behind and climbing into Black Canyon. Along the way are six-percent grades, heavy weekend traffic, wildfires, reversible flex lanes, the nationally recognized Sunset Point Rest Area, the Verde Valley, spectacular views toward Sedona, and a final climb into one of the largest continuous ponderosa pine forests on Earth.
By the time the highway reaches Flagstaff at nearly 7,000 feet, a traveler who began beneath the desert sun can be surrounded by snow and dense forest. It is an extraordinary transformation packed into one relatively short Interstate.
I-17 has also carried a troubling reputation. An analysis of federal fatality data from 2016 through 2019 ranked the highway fourth in the nation for fatalities per mile. In this episode, we travel the entire corridor and look at the traffic, geography, history, engineering and driver behavior behind that statistic.
From the unusual beginning of I-17 at milepost 194 and its two meetings with Interstate 10 in Phoenix, to Black Canyon, the new reversible flex lanes, Cordes Junction, Camp Verde, Sedona and finally Flagstaff, this is the story of a highway that connects two very different Arizonas.
