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"Loop 303" and "Arizona Loop 303" redirect here. For other uses, see List of highways numbered 303.

State Route 303
Bob Stump Memorial Parkway
Route information
Maintained by ADOT
Length	35.25 mi (56.73 km)
Existed	1985–present
Major junctions
CCW end	I-10 in Goodyear
Major intersections	US 60 in Surprise
CW end	I-17 north of Phoenix
Location
Country	United States
State	Arizona
Highway system
Arizona State Highway System Interstate US State Proposed Former
← SR 289 → SR 347

Arizona State Route 303, also known as Loop 303 (spoken as three-oh-three) or Bob Stump Memorial Parkway formerly called Estrella Freeway, is a state highway that was maintained by Maricopa County in central Arizona serving the far western suburbs of the Phoenix metropolitan area until 2004 when the Arizona Department of Transportation again took the control of upgrading the interim road to a freeway. As of 2004 it was renamed "Bob Stump Memorial Parkway" to honor former Arizona congressman Bob Stump.

Its current route is from just north of the Cotton Lane exit of Interstate 10 in Goodyear to Interstate 17 south of Carefree Highway. Unlike Loop 101 and Loop 202, most of Loop 303 is currently not a controlled-access highway ("freeway") from Interstate 10, although there are portions currently under construction between I-10 and US 60 to make it a freeway by the end of 2014. The section of highway between Happy Valley Parkway/Vistancia Boulevard to Interstate 17 is currently a controlled-access freeway. Although it has not been fully constructed, portions of Loop 303 from Lake Pleasant Parkway to Interstate 17 officially opened to traffic on May 13, 2011.

File:Old Arizona 303.svg

Old colored Arizona Loop 303 shield that is being phased out

Route description

Loop 303 begins at an interchange with I-10 in Goodyear. It heads north and intersects McDowell Road and Indian School Road. The road heads through a farmland terrain and passes the Wildlife World Zoo near Northern Avenue. It intersects the BNSF Railway near Olive Avenue. Past an intersection with Greenway Road, Route 303 enters a residential community and turns northeast. The route meets another BNSF railroad line near an intersection with US 60, Grand Avenue. The route turns eastward and becomes a controlled-access highway at El Mirage Road. It turns north near the Happy Valley Parkway interchange and then east again south of Lake Pleasant, coming to an end at an interchange with I-17 near Skunk Creek.

History

Loop 303 was originally a part of the 1985 Maricopa County Regional Transportation Plan to be funded by a sales tax approved by Maricopa County voters. The freeway, designed to service the Northwest Valley, would have been completed sometime by 2014. However, funding shortfalls and increasing construction costs forced cutbacks in the plan, and in 1995 the freeway was dropped from the regional plans.

Maricopa County took charge of what was then called the Estrella Freeway project when it was dropped from the regional freeway plans, maintaining it as an interim 2-lane highway along the original corridor while keeping the state route designation. The county has made significant improvements to the roadway, extending it several miles north and east of US 60. While the highway is still largely a 2-lane rural road, the extension north of US 60 along with the southern terminus just north of Interstate 10 have been upgraded to a 4-lane divided parkway, and the segment between US 60 and Bell Road in Surprise has been partially upgraded to controlled-highway standards with overpasses and right-of-way for on-ramps.

With the extension of the sales tax approved in 2004, the highway has once again been added to the Regional Transportation Plan. As Maricopa County has completed much of the required study and preparation work, construction on the freeway is already underway with a planned completion date of the I-10 to I-17 segment by 2015. In mid-2011 the segment between Happy Valley Parkway and I-17 was completed as a four-lane highway with an interchange at Lone Mountain Parkway completed but closed to the public. Currently, motorists must pass through a signaled interchange until a freeway to freeway interchange is built between Loop 303 and I-17. According to a recent agreement between the state legislature and the state department of transportation, STAN (Statewide Transportation Acceleration Needs) funds were used to build a partial interchange at Bell Road in summer 2010, several years before previously intended.

Future

Long-term plans call for the extension of Loop 303 south of the interchange with I-10 in Avondale to the planned I-10 'Reliever Route' Freeway, SR 30, and continuing south through Goodyear to connect with the planned alignment of future Interstate 11. Loop 303 would run concurrent with I-11 for several miles, before splitting off southward towards its ultimate terminus at Interstate 8 west of Casa Grande. If completed, Loop 303 will serve as a Phoenix bypass route for the southwestern suburbs of Goodyear, Avondale, and Buckeye as well as an alternate Phoenix bypass route for I-10 traffic headed westbound to the Greater Los Angeles Area and northbound via I-17 to Flagstaff.

In response to a projected budget shortfall of $6.6 billion brought on by the recession, the Maricopa Association of Governments voted to suspend funding to numerous projects during a meeting on October 28, 2009. Some modifications to Route 303, such as a scaled-back design of its interchanges with I-10 and US Highway 60, were made to cope with the budget shortfall. Funding for the extension south of I-10 to the planned alignment of SR 30 was removed, effectively postponing the extension until after 2025.

Exit list

The entire route is in Maricopa County.

Location	mi	km	Exit	Destinations	Notes
Goodyear	3.80	6.12	–	Cotton Lane / Van Buren Street	Former southern terminus
	3.93	6.32	104	I-10 – Phoenix, Los Angeles, CA	Stack interchange to be completed Fall 2014
	4.14	6.66	–	McDowell Road	No interchange planned
	5.19	8.35	105	Thomas Road / Cotton Lane	Temporary southern terminus of Loop 303 At-grade intersection, future interchange to be completed Fall 2014
	6.19	9.96	106	Indian School Road	Interchange opened Winter 2013
Goodyear–Glendale line	7.19	11.57	107	Camelback Road	Interchange opened Winter 2013
Glendalea	8.19	13.18	108	Bethany Home Road	At-grade intersection, future interchange to be completed Fall 2014
	9.19	14.79	109	Glendale Avenue	At-grade intersection, future interchange to be completed Fall 2014
	10.19	16.40	110	Northern Avenue	Half-interchange opened Winter 2013
			111	Northern Parkway	Interchange opened Winter 2013
	11.19	18.01	–	Olive Avenue	At-grade intersection, no future interchange planned
Glendale–Surprise line	12.20	19.63	112	Peoria Avenue	Interchange opened Fall 2013
Surprise	13.20	21.24	113	Cactus Road	Interchange opened Fall 2013
	14.20	22.85	114	Waddell Road	Interchange opened Fall 2013
	15.20	24.46	115	Greenway Road	Interchange opened Fall 2013
	16.20	26.07	116	Bell Road	Interchange opened Fall 2013
Surprise–Sun City West line	19.33	31.11	119	To US 60 (Grand Avenue)	Access via temporary connector road, interchange construction to begin in 2014
Sun City West	21.20	34.12	121	El Mirage Road	At-grade intersection, interchange construction to begin in 2014
Peoria	24.81	39.93	125	Happy Valley Road / Vistancia Boulevard
Peoria	25	40	124	Jomax Road	Interchange planned
Peoria	26.31	42.34	127	Lone Mountain Parkway
	Peoria	27	43	128	Westland Road	Interchange planned
27.81	44.76	131	Lake Pleasant Parkway
Phoenix	30.95	49.81	133	Pyramid Peak Parkway (67th Avenue)	Planned interchange
	32.23	51.87	135	Stetson Valley Parkway (51st Avenue)	Planned interchange
	35.23	56.70	–	I-17 – Flagstaff, Phoenix	Northern terminus at an at-grade intersection; site of future stack interchange (2016-2025)
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Closed/former       Incomplete access       Unopened

^a The City of Glendale has strip annexed land surrounding these exits, though they currently are not within the city's corporate boundaries.

See also

• Arizona State Route 101
• Arizona State Route 202
• Metropolitan Phoenix Freeways

External links

• SR 303 at Arizona Roads
• [1]
• [2]
• [3]

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303 303 Category:Beltways in the United States