PHOENIX – On Thursday, March 28, Phoenix Police Officer Paul Rutherford’s funeral procession is expected to be honored be many. As a result, Eastbound Loop 101 in the northwest and north Valley areas will be restricted at times during the midday hours.
The Arizona Department of Transportation is advising drivers to allow extra travel time and consider alternate routes between approximately 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Thursday. The start and end of restrictions will depend upon the procession’s schedule.
Following a service for Officer Rutherford, scheduled to start at 10 a.m. at Christ’s Church of the Valley in Peoria, a police motorcade will escort the procession southbound on 67th Avenue from Happy Valley Road to Loop 101.
According to the Arizona Department of Transportation:
The start and end of restrictions will depend upon the procession’s schedule. Eastbound Loop 101 will be temporarily closed at 75th Avenue while the procession is approaching the freeway. Eastbound Loop 101 traffic exiting at 75th Avenue can detour along the Beardsley frontage road, but delays are likely.
Eastbound Loop 101 on-ramps between Bell Road and Seventh Avenue will be closed in stages when the procession is approaching and traveling on the freeway.
Once all vehicles in the procession have entered the freeway, Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers will use a rolling closure to hold traffic behind the procession until it exits the freeway at Seventh Street in north Phoenix.
Both of the Interstate 17 ramps to eastbound Loop 101 will be closed while the procession is near the freeway-to-freeway interchange.
Upon exiting eastbound Loop 101 at Seventh Street, the procession will turn north and then west onto the westbound Loop 101 frontage road to reach Phoenix Memorial Park. The westbound Loop 101 off-ramp at Seventh Street will be closed for the procession.