"A 1.5-mile Arcadia street will see a significant transformation in 2025," the Arizona Republic reported in December 2023. That year came and went. The work actually started on October 12, 2026, and the City of Phoenix expects to finish in fall 2028.
The equipment on 56th Street between Thomas Road and Camelback Road over the past two weeks is the first visible step of a design Arcadia residents helped shape in public meetings eight years ago. The most specific thing they asked for, left-turn arrows at Camelback, became the starting point for a full signal rebuild there.
Eight Years From Open House to Shovel
Here is how the project has moved since it was first presented to the public, according to the City of Phoenix project page and the city's construction notice:
- June 20, July 18 and September 26, 2018. Three open houses for the 56th Street Corridor Study. About 330 residents attended and weighed in on issues, design elements and different roadway cross-sections.
- May 2022. Final design starts on the full project.
- November 29, 2023. Another public presentation, which the city posted to its YouTube channel.
- March 3, 2026. The city receives three construction bids.
- May 20, 2026. Phoenix City Council adopts the contract award.
- June 2026. The city publishes the final project map.
- October 12, 2026. Construction begins.
- Fall 2028. Anticipated completion.
The city describes the effort as "community-driven." Its stated goals are to put pedestrian and bicyclist safety first, meet ADA standards, close the gaps in the bike and walking network, fix utility and storm drainage problems, and add shade. The plan also supports safe routes to school. Almost every item on the construction list traces back to one of those goals.
The Part Residents Asked For by Name Is at Camelback
The project page includes a section titled "You Asked, We Listened!" It says people at the public meetings wanted changes to the signal at Camelback Road and 56th Street. In particular, they asked for a left-turn arrow for drivers heading east on Camelback and turning onto 56th, and for drivers on 56th turning west onto Camelback.
The city went further than that request and designed a complete rebuild of the signal. Once it's done, the intersection is scheduled to have:
- Green, solid yellow, red and flashing yellow arrows for every approach
- A dedicated left-turn lane for northbound 56th Street
- Pedestrian push buttons and countdown timers on all four approaches
- New ADA ramps on every corner
The Camelback rebuild is the headline item, but the construction notice lists signal updates at five intersections along the corridor. Drivers who've waited out an unprotected left at Camelback are the ones most likely to notice the difference.
What Gets Built Along the Rest of the Street
The signal work is one piece of a full rebuild of the corridor. Here is the scope as the city describes it:
| Element | What the city has published |
|---|---|
| Multi-use paths | Paths 10 to 12 feet wide on both the west and east sides of 56th Street, for cyclists, pedestrians, families and school-age kids |
| Drainage | A 24-inch storm drain running from Thomas Road to Camelback Road |
| Shade | Low-water-use trees next to the sidewalk and multi-use path |
| Exeter Boulevard | Possible changes to the existing roundabout, described in the notice as improvements to safety and traffic flow |
| Sidewalks and ramps | New curbs, gutters and sidewalks, with ramps upgraded to current ADA standards |
| Speed | Traffic-calming features meant to keep travel speeds safer |
| Signals | Updates at five intersections, including the full rebuild at Camelback |
The city's design diagrams show three typical cross-sections. Each has two lanes of traffic and a multi-use path on each side. They differ in the landscape buffer between cars and path users, which appears on neither side, one side or both sides depending on the segment. One version also includes a turn lane. Paths on both sides of the street are the core of the plan. Today a walk or bike ride on 56th can mean crossing over or sharing the road where the sidewalk runs out. Continuous paths on both sides are meant to remove that choice.
The South End Goes First
According to the construction notice, work starts at the south end of the project, between Thomas Road and Indian School Road. City Council records split the project into two phases. Phase 1 covers Indian School Road to Camelback Road, and Phase 2 covers Thomas Road to Indian School Road. That means the section labeled Phase 2 is the one being built first.
The first segment ends at Indian School Road, where three of the corridor's best-known stops sit:
- G.R. Herberger Park, 5802 E Indian School Road, with a picnic and grill area, pickleball, tennis and volleyball courts, restrooms, shade structures and drinking fountains.
- Arizona Falls, a 20-foot drop on the Arizona Canal between 56th and 58th streets. It's both a neighborhood attraction and a working hydroelectric plant. You enter from the south and cross a footbridge to a viewing platform, where boulder seating sits between curtains of falling water and the historic gears are on display. Shade structures make it usable year-round.
- Prince of Peace Lutheran Church and Preschool, 3641 N. 56th St., on the northeast corner of 56th Street and Indian School Road.
Arizona Falls is also home to "WaterWorks at Arizona Falls," a Phoenix Art Commission project by Boston artists Lajos Héder and Mags Harries that tells the history of the site. SRP notes that more than 80 miles of paved paths have been built along Valley canals, many with lighting, landscaping and public art. When the 56th Street paths are finished, a person on foot should be able to get from Thomas Road to the area around the falls and the park on a dedicated path instead of a patchwork of sidewalks.
The standard work schedule is Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The notice adds that some night and weekend work may be scheduled "when necessary to minimize impacts to the community." In practice, Saturday mornings at the courts and Sunday walks to the falls should mostly fall outside the crews' regular hours, though occasional exceptions are possible.
What the Contract Says About the Timeline
On May 20, 2026, City Council approved Hunter Contracting Co. as the lowest-priced responsive bidder. The initial agreement is $23,142,664.40, with a ceiling of $25,456,930.40 once a 10 percent contingency is included. The Council record gives some useful context:
- The city's own estimate of probable cost was $26,430,460.50, so the winning bid came in about $3.3 million lower.
- The next-lowest responsive bid, from Combs Construction Company, LLC, was $29,468,633.35.
- The city requested the contingency because of "volatile material costs and increased labor prices in the construction industry."
The agreement is titled for the Thomas-to-Indian School Phase 2 work, but it lists the project numbers for both phases. The work is federally funded and budgeted in the Street Transportation Department's Capital Improvement Program. The contract term is 660 calendar days from the Notice to Proceed, which is about 22 months, and the record allows work to extend past the end of the term.
The 2023 timeline slipped by more than a year, so the fall 2028 date is the one to plan around, not one to count on.
How to Know What Closes, and When
The October notice does not list specific lane restrictions or detours. It says more notices will go out as specific work and traffic changes are scheduled, and it includes a QR code for signing up for project updates. If you use 56th Street to get to work, the courts at Herberger Park or Sunday services at Prince of Peace, those notices are the only reliable source on what shifts and when.
The project team can be reached directly:
- Project hotline: 623-825-3444
- Email: [email protected]
- Project page: City of Phoenix 56th Street project, which links the October construction notice, the June 2026 final map and the 90 percent design diagrams
For day-to-day restrictions, the city's street closures page links to its current restriction list. The final project map shows the Thomas-to-Indian School and Indian School-to-Camelback sections separately, which helps if you want to see the plans for your own block before the crews reach it.
If two years of construction on 56th Street figures into your plans to sell, buy or stay in Arcadia, The Studebaker Group follows corridor projects like this one block by block and can tell you what the timeline means for your street. Schedule a personalized consultation, and we'll walk you through it.
