Twenty new street improvement projects planned in the next year will make the ride smoother for everyone in Tempe. Keep reading to find out how Tempe cares for and reinvests in your city streets.

Every three years, a specialized vehicle, equipped with imaging technology and sensors, scans and analyzes your street’s pavement. It looks for pavement distresses, such as cracks and potholes, and then assigns a pavement quality index (PQI) score. The PQI scores, along with other data metrics such as traffic volumes, are used to plan and prioritize street repair and maintenance projects in Tempe.

Tempe uses a preventative maintenance approach to pavement management. This approach maximizes available funding by allowing the city to find a balance between maintaining streets that are considered to be in good condition and rehabilitating streets considered to be in poor condition.

Tempe plans road improvement projects over a five-year period. In the next fiscal year, 20 projects have been planned. The following examples planned for neighborhoods highlight the breadth of improvements and investment. They include pavement removal, new surface installation, broken sidewalk replacement and ramps updated to ADA standards.

Tempe Gardens, Chipperwood and La Estancia: several neighborhoods between Guadalupe and Elliot roads, Kyrene and Rural roads.

Optimist Park: between Baseline and Guadalupe roads McClintock Drive and Price Road.

Victory Acres: between University Drive and Apache Blvd., Price Road and Evergreen Street.
Street improvements are necessary to ensure accessibility and safety for all Tempe road users. Good quality streets allow faster travel for emergency vehicles, reduced road noise, less wear and tear on vehicles using our roadway and improved vehicle safety and handling in all types of weather conditions.

Tempe’s pavement quality is a Council priority that has been identified for acceleration, allowing the city to reach its goal of a PQI of 70 by 2028, due to increased budgetary funding.   

For more information about Tempe’s PQI program, please visit tempe.gov/RefreshTempe or call 480-350-4311.  

Refresh Tempe

Your parks. Your streets. Your community. Tempe is dedicated to prioritizing reinvestment projects throughout your city.

Over the last several years, the Tempe City Council has been increasing reinvestments in parks, streets, golf courses and more. This Refresh Tempe initiative aims to add and maintain Tempe amenities and infrastructure in order to improve quality of life for all community members.

See more about how we're refreshing the city at tempe.gov/RefreshTempe.

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Tempe makes waves as a technology and business magnet, an inclusive, caring community and a hub for recreation and adventure. With over 1,241 miles of roadways, we are committed to creating safe streets, which is why Tempe was the first Arizona city to adopt a Vision Zero resolution, a goal to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injury crashes – because everyone deserves to get home safe.