page_title: Interstate 10 in Arizona
section_title: West of Phoenix
hierarchical_section_title: Interstate 10 in Arizona / History / West of Phoenix
caption_attribution_description: English: Interstate 10 near Quartzsite, Arizona. (view almost due-east)
context_page_description: In the U.S. state of Arizona, Interstate 10, the major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States Sun Belt, runs east from California, enters Arizona near the town of Ehrenberg and continues through Phoenix and Tucson and exits at the border with New Mexico near San Simon. The highway also runs through the cities of Casa Grande, Eloy and Marana. Segments of the highway are referred to as either the Papago Freeway, Inner Loop or Maricopa Freeway within the Phoenix area and the Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway outside metro Phoenix.
context_section_description: Moving east from the California line at Ehrenburg, I-10 follows the old route of US 60/US 70 for the first 31 miles (50 km) east from Blythe, California. In 1960, this western-most stretch of I-10 was built from near the Colorado River east to the future spot where the "Brenda Cutoff" section of I-10 would connect a decade later. Until the early 1970s, this was the last freeway stretch until Phoenix. The "Brenda Cutoff" was named for a gas station on the old road just east of the fork where US 60 now terminates at I-10. Now an obscure name, "Brenda Cutoff" was the working title that the Arizona Highway Department called the stretch of freeway from US 60 to near Buckeye. The Brenda Cutoff paralleled old sand roads used in the 1920s for Phoenix-Los Angeles traffic, but mostly abandoned after US 60/US 70 was built to the north, through Wickenburg.
  The Brenda Cutoff's opening on June 18, 1973 was eagerly awaited and was a big deal in newspapers in Phoenix and Los Angeles. It saved motorists from having to drive through Glendale, Sun City, Wickenburg and Salome, about 20 miles (32 km) out of the way, and it eliminated about 80 miles (130 km) of two-lane highway. But the freeway was opened only as far east as Tonopah, and heavy traffic was routed down narrow county roads through the desert and fields between Tonopah and Buckeye. In addition, there was only one very-small gas station on the very-long route between Buckeye and Quartzsite, on the old county road at the tiny crossroads of Palo Verde. Signs warning "No Services Next 106 Miles" were posted at either end of the Brenda Cutoff those first few years.
  The freeway was extended past Tonopah as far east as Phoenix's western fringes (at Cotton Lane) in about 1974. I-10's freeway section ended in Goodyear until the controversial Papago Freeway was finished across the western Valley of the Sun in 1990. During the "west valley gap" years, westbound I-10 traffic was routed off the Maricopa Freeway at 19th Avenue in Phoenix, and stayed on the access road as it curved past the Durango Curve. Los Angeles-bound traffic then turned left on Buckeye Road and followed the "TO 10" signs down Buckeye Road (first marked US 80 until 1977, then SR 85) for nearly 15 years.
caption: Interstate 10 between Blythe, California, and Quartzsite, Arizona
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