The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) has given a contract worth $600 million to Sundt Construction and Jacobs Engineering to modernize a three-mile stretch of I-10 between Kino Parkway and Country Club Road in Tucson.

The construction collaboration marks the region’s largest highway project to date, to reduce traffic congestion and improve traffic flow across a vital urban corridor.

The project encompasses the building of three general-purpose lanes in each direction, demolition of obsolete interchanges, and creation of new transportation features such as an I-10 westbound entrance ramp and an undercrossing, intended to improve traffic flows. With the help of ADOT, these modernizations will result in the area being a safer and more comfortable space for the flow of traffic on a road that ranks among the top five most heavily used in the state.

The enhancements to Kino to Country Club Road are the first significant step from ADOT’s I-10 and State Route 210 Transportation Design Concept Report, which was finalized in 2020. The report serves as a guide for future improvements to corridors that serve southern Arizona. 

The I-10 stage was included in ADOT’s Five-Year Facilities Construction Program for 2024-2028 and was fully funded by the state, meaning that no issues stemming from uncertainty about the future of federal budgets would affect the project.

“The Kino to Country Club Road program is a pioneering effort and will bring best practices in alternative program delivery to Arizona,” said Galina Leipart, Jacobs’ transportation market growth director. “Working with ADOT and Sundt as our design-build partner, we’ll deliver a safer, more efficient transportation system.

Jacobs will be responsible for the architectural and structural engineering plans of the final designs, while Sundt, based in Tempe, will take the lead in the actual construction of the project. The groundbreaking has already occurred, and the work is expected to be finished in the summer of 2028. 

These kinds of projects will be a good reference for other design-build partnerships, which will arise as the state continues to invest in the upgrading and extension of highways.

The contract is part of the continual improvements across Arizona’s interstate network, which includes work in Metro Phoenix and significant urban highway expansion throughout the state. Recently, reports surfaced about Arizona’s overall attempt to spend nearly $1 billion on highway widening and improvement efforts and about the beginning of major work on the Metro Phoenix freeway system.

Under construction at an accelerated pace, ADOT’s partnership with Sundt and Jacobs marks a new milestone in Arizona’s effort to deliver infrastructure more sustainably, efficiently, and innovatively.