Arizona State Route 303

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State Route 303, also known as SR-303L, Loop 303 and Estrella Parkway, is a state highway currently maintained by Maricopa County [1] in central Arizona serving the far western suburbs of the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Unlike Loop 101 and Loop 202, Loop 303 is not a controlled-access expressway, although there are plans to upgrade its status. Its current route is from just north of the Cotton Lane exit of Interstate 10 in Goodyear to a point several miles past U.S. Route 60 (Grand Avenue) north of Sun City. When completed, it will connect to Interstate 17 in far northern Phoenix.

Old colored Arizona Loop 303 shield that is being phased out

The Loop 303 was originally a part of the 1985 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 the L303 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 onramps.

With the extension of the sales tax approved in 2004, the highway has once again been added to the regional freeway 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. A planned extension of the freeway south of I-10 to the planned alignment of SR-801 is scheduled to be complete by 2020, and further funding is provided for right-of-way preservation for a potential future extension of the freeway several miles south of SR-801, although no plans for such an extension through 2025 have been made.