The Mockingbird Lane Closure Is Mostly a Drainage Job. The Road You'll Notice Comes Last.

You can't drive through the corner of Invergordon Road and Mockingbird Lane right now. The Town of Paradise Valley closed the intersection on Monday, October 26, and the posted schedule keeps it shut through Monday, November 23, 2026. Detour signs and traffic control devices send drivers around it, and the dates may shift with weather or unforeseen conditions. A block north, Invergordon has been southbound-only between Horseshoe Road and Mockingbird Lane since July 20, and that restriction is set to last through the end of November.

From the driver's seat this looks like a road project. The Town's own numbers show it's mostly a drainage project with a road project added at the end. The crews working inside the closure this month are installing what the Mockingbird Lane Improvement Project site calls "critical storm drainage infrastructure." Drainage takes most of the project's budget. The features drivers will actually notice, the chicanes, the medians and the new pavement, come in the next phase.

Most of the $17.5 million goes underground

The project covers Mockingbird Lane from 56th Street east to Invergordon Road. The Town tracks it as two capital projects, CIP No. 2021-03 for the roadway and CIP No. 2021-12 for the drainage. Chandler-based Achen-Gardner Construction is building it under a construction manager at risk contract. That setup means the contractor helps with design and then commits to a guaranteed maximum price for the construction.

The Town's February 26, 2026 project update lists the final guaranteed maximum price at $17,490,768, split this way:

• Drainage improvements: $13,747,976, with $5,823,988 paid by the Town and $7,923,988 paid by the Flood Control District
• Roadway improvements: $3,742,792, all paid by the Town
• Total: $17,490,768, with $9,566,780 from the Town and $7,923,988 from the Flood Control District

That puts drainage at about 79 cents of every contract dollar and the roadway at about 21 cents. The Town pays the whole roadway portion. The Flood Control District's money goes only to the drainage side, and it covers a little over half of that piece. This month's closure is part of that drainage work, the larger of the two budget lines.

How a $6.8 million concept became a $17.5 million contract

The price climbed in steps over about two years, and each step lines up with a stage of the design.

1. May 2024: Town Council backed a "hybrid" fourth option for the 56th Street to Invergordon stretch, with chicanes and medians, estimated at about $6.8 million. Design was 60% complete at the time, the Paradise Valley Independent reported.
2. November 14, 2024: Council voted unanimously for a preconstruction agreement with Achen-Gardner, not to exceed $258,896. The Independent described the overall project then as costing more than $12.3 million.
3. June 2025: The consultant delivered 100% design plans, and the engineer's estimate was refined to $14,778,000.
4. October 2025: Achen-Gardner submitted a draft guaranteed maximum price of $20,432,835.
5. January 2026: After Town staff negotiated the contractor's cost structure, the revised and final price came in at $17,490,768.
6. March 26, 2026: Council approved the contracts needed to start work on what the Fountain Hills Times called the long-planned $17.5 million project, after a meeting it described as "at times contentious."

Two details in the February update explain some of the gap between the early figures and the final one. The Flood Control District changed its funding formula, and its expected share dropped from about $9 million to about $8 million. The City of Phoenix also asserted prior rights to existing waterlines inside the project limits, so if those lines have to move, the Town pays for it. The final contract landed roughly $2.9 million under the October draft. It's still well above the 2024 concept figure, and most of that money ended up on the drainage side.

What this stretch of Mockingbird looks like today

Mockingbird Lane between 56th Street and Invergordon Road is an east-west collector street. It's a different road from the north-south Mockingbird Lane that runs between Lincoln and McDonald drives. A Town staff report cited by the Fountain Hills Times describes it as striped for two lanes, with a bike lane on each side, a sidewalk on the north side and a posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour.

The finished project keeps that basic layout. Renderings published with the coverage show the road marked for two lanes with bike lanes, plus the traffic calming Council chose in 2024. One Town rendering from that time shows a median at the point where drivers turn onto Mockingbird from Invergordon. Others show chicanes along the corridor between 56th Street and Invergordon. The project site lists the full scope as new storm drainage, road resurfacing, traffic calming, bike lanes, and ADA-compliant sidewalk ramps and driveways.

So the corner that's closed today is also one of the spots where drivers will see the clearest change when the work is done.

Why the visible work comes last

The Town lists four phases, scheduled in this order.

On the Town's schedule, the drainage and underground work comes before the roadway construction and paving, and the chicanes and medians belong to the roadway phase. The November closure at Invergordon is Phase 2. The changes drivers will notice are in Phase 3.

The schedule has also moved. In February, the Town expected construction to start in May 2026 and take six to eight months. That would have put the finish somewhere between November 2026 and January 2027. The project site now gives early 2027 for closeout and notes that the timeline can change with weather or unforeseen conditions. While work continues, the Town says residents may see scheduled water service interruptions with advance notice, lane restrictions, lower speeds in work zones, and construction equipment along the corridor.

The rest of November's driving around the closure

On Sunday, November 8, the Life Time Phoenix 10K and Half Marathon adds a second set of restrictions on the other side of town. The Town says westbound Lincoln Drive will be restricted between 24th Street and Tatum Boulevard from 5:30 to 11 a.m. Southbound Tatum Boulevard will be restricted between Lincoln Drive and Caida Del Sol Drive from 5:30 to 10 a.m. The race starts at Biltmore Fashion Park. The race's community page says police will meter traffic in and out of the neighborhood at the northwest corner of Lincoln and Tatum.

If you usually use Invergordon to get around the closure, Sunday morning, November 8 is the tightest window. Lincoln and Tatum are restricted that morning, the Mockingbird intersection is still closed, and the stretch of Invergordon between Horseshoe and Mockingbird stays southbound-only.

The Town posts closure changes in the Town Manager's weekly update, and the project team takes questions at (480) 903-4838 or [email protected]. The project site also has a sign-up form for direct updates, which is the quickest way to hear if the November 23 reopening date changes.

If you own a home near the 56th Street to Invergordon stretch and want to know how the Phase 3 timing fits with your plans for the coming year, Rami Haddad follows Town projects like this one closely across Paradise Valley and is glad to walk through the schedule with you. Let's Connect.