A brand-new freeway interchange opened in Tucson, Arizona, at the start of the Monday morning commute on November 9, with traffic now flowing on and off Interstate 10 at Country Club Road, southeast of downtown, the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) said.
The opening is a major milestone on the $600 million project to reconstruct and widen I-10 from Kino Parkway to Alvernon Way, ADOT said on its project page. ADOT had told drivers in a November 5 bulletin to plan for restrictions on I-10 between Park Avenue and Alvernon Way from November 8 to 14, and that the new Country Club Road interchange would open to traffic on Monday, November 9.
Source: Arizona Department of Transportation — Interstate 10: Kino to Country Club Project
How a diverging diamond works — and why drivers will notice
The Country Club Road interchange is a diverging diamond, a design still relatively new to Southern Arizona. Its one major difference from a standard diamond interchange, ADOT explains, is that local street traffic makes a temporary shift to the left side of the road while crossing the freeway, which allows direct left turns onto entrance ramps without waiting at an additional traffic signal.
This is only the second diverging diamond in Southern Arizona, following the one that opened in November 2021 at I-10 and Houghton Road in east Tucson. Drivers using Country Club Road for the first time should expect the crossover pattern to feel unfamiliar at first: follow the signs and lane markings, and oncoming traffic will briefly be on the other side.
What changed on the map
The Country Club Road interchange replaces the former Palo Verde Road interchange, which closed earlier this year — ADOT permanently closed the Palo Verde interchange in August as the project advanced. The interchange location was shifted to Country Club Road to allow safer traffic movements to and from I-10, and trade coverage of the project notes the move also gives more space from the Alvernon Way interchange to the east.
The full $600 million project
ADOT describes the work as the largest highway construction project in Southern Arizona history. When complete, I-10 will be widened to three lanes in each direction between Kino Parkway and Alvernon Way, with auxiliary lanes between ramps. The project will also reconstruct the interchange at Kino Parkway as a diverging diamond, construct a new westbound on-ramp at the Alvernon Way interchange, remove the Palo Verde Road interchange, and build an I-10 undercrossing connecting the north and south sides of the Kino Sports Complex.
ADOT advised drivers in the work zone between Park Avenue and Alvernon Way to allow extra travel time, slow down and merge safely through November 14, and said two lanes of travel in each direction on I-10 will be maintained during peak travel times while business access stays open. Project questions: ADOT Bilingual Project Information Line, 855.712.8530.
Background: a project years in the making
Work began in June 2025, with crews from Sundt Construction and the design firm Jacobs building the project for ADOT, according to Construction Equipment Guide's coverage. ADOT said in August that the project had reached its halfway mark. The scheme is the first to result from a study completed in 2020 that recommended how to improve mobility along a roughly 10-mile stretch of I-10 from Interstate 19 to Kolb Road; the same study identified an alignment for extending State Route 210, the Barraza-Aviation Parkway, along Alvernon Way to connect I-10 with downtown Tucson.
Why it matters beyond Tucson
Interstate 10 is the sole east-west interstate serving Tucson, a metro area of about one million people, and it is one of the country's great freight corridors, carrying trucks between California, Arizona, Texas and the Gulf Coast. For the many Punjabi and other long-haul truckers who run I-10, every interchange change on this stretch changes how they enter and leave the city for fuel, food and deliveries — and the work zone itself will shape their trips for two more years.
What happens next
The Country Club opening does not finish the project. Construction is expected to continue through 2028, with the reconstruction of the Kino Parkway interchange as a diverging diamond among the biggest remaining pieces, plus the final widening to three lanes in each direction and the Kino Sports Complex undercrossing. ADOT says schedules can change with weather and other factors, so drivers and truckers should check the project page before planning around any single closure.