Northbound Drinkwater Boulevard is shut down between Scottsdale Road and Civic Center Plaza Sunday morning after a single-vehicle collision left someone with life-threatening injuries, according to police. The closure has cut off a key stretch of roadway that runs directly past the heart of downtown Scottsdale, forcing drivers to find another way around.
Scottsdale police announced the closure just after 10:20 a.m. in a post on X, warning drivers to avoid the area and use Scottsdale Road or 75th Street as alternate routes instead. According to ScottsdalePD, the crash was reported as a single-vehicle collision with life-threatening injuries, though the department has not released details on the vehicle occupants, the cause of the crash, or when northbound lanes are expected to reopen.
🚨#TrafficAlert🚨Northbound Drinkwater Blvd is CLOSED from Scottsdale Rd to Civic Center Plaza for a reported single-vehicle collision with life-threatening injuries. -Please use Scottsdale Rd or 75th Street as alternates. pic.twitter.com/2Chrmt6DBZ
— ScottsdalePD (@ScottsdalePD) September 6, 2026
A Roadway Built to Route Traffic Around Old Town
The closed stretch of Drinkwater Boulevard sits alongside Goldwater Boulevard as part of a traffic couplet the City of Scottsdale designed specifically to steer vehicles around the Old Town pedestrian core and Civic Center Plaza, according to city planning documents. That means a shutdown here does not just inconvenience a side street — it removes one half of the primary bypass system meant to keep regional traffic moving through downtown. The segment also runs past the Drinkwater Boulevard Bridge, a 27,615-square-foot vehicular structure completed in 2020 that spans municipal grounds near the Civic Center, according to Field Verified…