State begins plans to replace 2 noise-reduction walls

SCOTTSDALE - Residents of two Scottsdale neighborhoods west of Loop 101 are due for more relief from freeway noise next year.

The Arizona Department of Transportation plans to build two new noise-reduction walls along the southbound Loop 101. One wall will run north and south of Via Linda, and the other will run from north of the Cactus Road exit to Sweetwater Avenue.

The agency has just started designing the walls. Residents will have opportunities to comment before construction starts in about a year, said Eric Anderson, transportation director for the Maricopa Association of Governments regional planning agency.

The new wall at Via Linda will replace one believed to have been built during the freeway's original construction. The current wall is 9 feet high, but subsequent decibel readings in the neighborhood indicate it should be taller, Anderson said.

The wall north of Cactus would replace a shorter, decorative one built by the subdivision developer, he said.

Decibel levels in the neighborhoods surpassed the 64-decibel level at which ADOT considers noise abatement measures. The new walls are designed to reduce those levels to 60 decibels, which the agency says will mean a noticeable decrease in noise.

Transportation officials say it is too early in the design process to tell whether the two existing walls will be removed and replaced, or simply extended to the new heights.

Demolition is included in both project estimates. The Via Linda wall would cost $70,280 to remove, and the Cactus Road wall removal would cost $85,000, MAG estimated.

Whether the new walls will incorporate the artistic lizard and cactus designs has not been decided. Scottsdale put up $2 million to add the murals to its freeway walls when state officials cut landscaping and other aesthetics out of the regional freeway budget in the mid-1990s.

The walls will be designed to ADOT's standards, and murals or any features above those would be done in partnership with MAG and Scottsdale, ADOT spokesman Lars Jacoby said.

The two Scottsdale projects are among 11 noise-reduction walls around the Valley approved by MAG's regional council in July. Phoenix will get five walls along Interstate 10, Interstate 17, Loop 101 and Arizona 51. Peoria will get three along Loop 101, and Sun City West gets one along Loop 303.

The projects, estimated at a total cost of $15.6 million, will be financed by Proposition 400 sales tax revenue approved by Maricopa County voters in 2004.