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Canals Could Become Economic Engines For The Phoenix Area

Jim Duncan on the canal bank
Mark Brodie/KJZZ
/
file | staff
Jim Duncan on the canal bank.

As the weather starts to get a bit cooler, at least in the morning and evening, you might start to see more and more walkers, joggers, cyclists, dog walkers and other people along the canals that run through the Phoenix area.

There are increasingly more options for people who want to use the canal banks for activities like those. On the Crosscut Canal on McDowell Road, just east of 64th Street, there are paths there for walking and biking, as well as a bridge going over the canal and an underpass that goes underneath McDowell Road.

To get a sense of these improvements, The Show spoke with Jim Duncan, who is in the Water Engineering Group at SRP.

Duncan said more than 1 million people take part in some kind of activity along the 131 mile system every year — and that that number is only going up.

Mark Brodie is a co-host of The Show, KJZZ’s locally produced news magazine. Since starting at KJZZ in 2002, Brodie has been a host, reporter and producer, including several years covering the Arizona Legislature, based at the Capitol.