Route 66 Railway Underpass – Flagstaff AZ

City:
Flagstaff, AZ

Site Type:
Infrastructure and Utilities, Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels

New Deal Agencies:
Public Works Administration (PWA), Public Works Funding, Bureau of Public Roads (BPR)

Started:
1934

Completed:
1934

Quality of Information:
Good

Marked:
No

Site Survival:
Extant

Description

The Public Works Administration (PWA) and the federal Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) funded a large amount of road building around Arizona during the New Deal. One of the highway projects was an underpass for Route 66 beneath the busy Santa Fe railroad line that passes through the center of Flagstaff, which greatly helped relieved traffic jams of cars and trucks waiting for trains to pass.

The underpass cost $125,000, of which the city contributed only $5,000.  The PWA grant was awarded in June 1934 and the underpass was finished by Christmas (Cline, p. 308).

The underpass carries two lanes of traffic each direction and includes a raised pedestrian walkway on the west side. Because the underpass is deep to allow large trucks to pass freely, the walls flanking the roadway extend for more than 50 feet in each direction.  There are Moderne/Deco style touches to the detailing and the concrete is painted in light blue and yellow.  

The concrete is showing it age in places, but overall the underpass is in good condition and still carries a heavy load of highway and rail traffic.

We could not find any plaque or marker on the underpass itself indicated when it was built or its New Deal provenance.

Source notes

Platt Cline, Mountain Town: Flagstaff's First Century. Flagstaff AZ: Northland Publishing Company, 1994, p 308.

Site originally submitted by Richard Walker on April 23, 2022.

Location Info


Old Route 66
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Coconino County

Coordinates: 35.198021, -111.6540

Site Details

Federal CostLocal CostTotal Cost
$120.00 $5.00 $125.00

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