Former State Routes in Arizona - State Route T-69

State Route T-69

This was the link between the eastern end of Interstate 10 where the Maricopa Freeway ended at 40th Street, and Arizona routes 87 and 93 near Mesa and Chandler. When the Maricopa Freeway was built and opened in 1962, it ended at 40th Street. The Arizona Highway Department apparently wanted to post a truck route around Tempe and Mesa. SR T-69 was signed through the farm fields on 40th Street south to Baseline Road, and then east on Baseline to Country Club Drive in Mesa (Arizona Avenue in Chandler), where it linked with routes 87 and 93. For a few months in about 1970, T-69 was the northern terminus for an unmarked, orphan section of Interstate 10, when four miles (6 km) of freeway were built south from Baseline to Williams Field Road (now Chandler Blvd.). T-69 was not marked as "Temporary I-10", nor was it marked with "TO 10" signs. Interstate 10 in the 1960s simply was not marked between Phoenix and Picacho, and remained unsigned until the interstate was opened from Baseline Road in Guadalupe to Picacho in about 1970. T-69 west of Guadalupe remained a state highway for a few more months, until the "Broadway Curve" section of Interstate 10 opened, during this period it was co-signed as the route "TO 10". T-69 was erased when the Phoenix-Tucson freeway was opened.

Arizona Highway Department maps of the era referred to the route as TEMP 69, although State Route 69 never extended south or east beyond the southern end of the Black Canyon Freeway, and T-69 never linked to Route 69.