State Route 87 runs from Coolidge north through Fountain Hills, continuing to Payson and north to Winslow before terminating on the Navajo Reservation at Second Mesa (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
SUNFLOWER, Ariz. (NAZ Today)– A state highway that has been plagued with rockslides is once again closed this evening due to a rock/mudslide from heavy rains in the Slate Creek area.
ADOT is recommending US 60 to Globe, and then northbound on SR 188 through Roosevelt back to SR 87 if motorists need to drive from the Valley to the Payson area. Thursday evening, ADOT engineers determined that the road was “too unstable to maintain traffic,” so the road was closed to norhbound traffic at the Bush Highway turnoff. ADOT has also closed the road southbound at the Roosevelt turnoff (SR 188), 15 miles south of Payson. Cars are being detoured to Globe or turned around at both turnoffs (Bush Hwy. and SR 188).
ADOT and DPS are advising that drivers use caution on the SR 188 portion of the detour, as there is still standing water on the road, just north of Globe at mile post 219.
Northbound SR 87 was temporarily closed Thursday afternoon after rocks and mud fell onto the road deck. Crews were able to clear and reopen one lane for traffic for a short time before ADOT engineers requested crews to again close the road.
Back in March 2008, southbound SR 87 was closed for several weeks due to a rock slide a few miles north of the area that both covered the roadway and eroded out from under the road deck, buckeling the pavement. The northbound lanes were converted to two-way traffic during the closure. ADOT crews have been reconstructing the hillside and putting up barriers to prevent rock slides in the area since that time.
ADOT has not announced when a northbound traffic will be allowed back on portions of SR 87.
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