Help is coming to one of the city’s most crash-prone intersections.

Maricopa City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to approve a traffic signal at the Smith-Enke Road and Desert Greens Drive intersection.

What the city called a “challenging intersection” has been the site of at least a half-dozen major crashes in the past several months.

Recent studies showed the intersection “did meet some warrants there for the traffic signal,” which prompted the city to move forward with recommending its installation to maintain optimal traffic flows, said Public Works Director Keith Brown during the meeting.

When Councilmember Vincent Manfredi hinted at its construction on Facebook earlier this month, locals questioned if the new signal would be a little too close to the Porter Road intersection, about 900 feet away.

Brown said the lights would be “timed and synchronized” to complement each other.

“That’s always a challenge, but our traffic engineers will look at that and make sure that the timing is set appropriately to minimize any delays in that traffic,” he said.

And the suggestion for right-turn only?

“There is no other access within the vicinity to allow movement to the eastbound direction if you’re coming out, so that would have been a huge inconvenience for traffic,” Brown said.

City spokesperson Monica Williams said design costs would come from unused capital improvement project funds and the signal’s construction would be funded as a new project in the next fiscal year. The project’s total cost is estimated to be $760,000.

The project’s design is set to begin next month, with construction beginning in early 2026.

Vincent Manfredi is an owner of InMaricopa.