ADOT Blog

A couple months ago we told you how ADOT works to minimize the noise impact a new freeway has on surrounding neighborhoods. Well, similar efforts also are made when it comes to air quality …

Did you know today kicks off the start of National Preparedness Month? It’s a national effort focused on getting families, workplaces and emergency responders prepared for anything … because disasters and emergencies never seem to give much of a warning.

It’s not often that a tree gets wrapped up in a mystery, but a lot of unanswered questions surround one Juniper growing next to I-17. Some Arizonans might already know about the tree – it’s actually sort of famous around the state and even has its own Wikipedia page.

If you’ve been following along in the blog, you know that we’ve been chronicling ADOT’s reconstruction of the Mescal/J-Six bridge in southern Arizona since it was severely damaged when two semi trucks collided underneath it back in March. Completion of the fast-tracked bridge reconstruction is slated for later this month.

If you live and drive the Loop 101 in the West and North Valley you probably noticed the first stretch of HOV lanes on the eastbound Loop 101 recently opened. These new lanes already have helped to ease congestion in the North Valley, especially during the morning commute. You may have also noticed that the westbound HOV lanes appear to be done as well, but are not opened. ADOT has not decided to taunt you – these lanes aren’t open yet for a reason.

When prices at the pump started to spike a couple years ago, ADOT began looking at ways to cut fuel costs for the 4,200 vehicles in its fleet. And, believe it or not, the idea for a very promising solution came from the roof of a pretend cop car … well, sort of.

An ADOT Highway Operations Supervisor came across a sight Monday morning that he’s never seen before … As he was driving by Jeddito Wash on SR 87, Elliott Koinva noticed that thousands of tumbleweeds had clustered together to form a kind of solid wall.

Now that you know a little about the ADOT permitting process involved with moving oversize loads, take a look at the latest heavy haul to cross Arizona’s highways. The video above shows just a portion of the journey this 285-ton load took beginning the first week of August.

Last week we gave you an update on how the new Mescal/J-Six bridge is coming along... You might also remember that the night the damaged bridge was taken down, the old Marsh Station bridge was also demolished just a few miles away. It was a huge project that required completely shutting down I-10 for the night.

With roughly 240,000 vehicles driving through it each day, the I-10 Deck Park Tunnel needs the night off every once in a while for a good, thorough scrub! Just about every four months, the tunnel is closed to traffic in order to allow crews the chance to wash the walls, maintain the ventilation systems and check on the tunnel’s 3,700 light fixtures (about 150-200 light bulbs are changed out each quarter!).