ADOT Blog

Ever been stuck on the side of the road? Perhaps a flat tire was to blame, or maybe an overheated engine forced you to pull over. Whatever the reason, most will agree the side of a busy freeway is not the ideal parking spot.

Few situations are as stressful as hitting traffic on your way to the airport … especially if you’re holding on to that non-refundable ticket for a trip out of town. That’s why ADOT is working on reconstructing the State Route 143/Sky Harbor Boulevard Traffic Interchange to improve access to and from the airport.

Airports may not be the first thing most people think of when it comes to ADOT … but the Arizona Department of Transportation actually plays an important role in aeronautics and the development of airports across the state. Just like automobiles, all aircraft based in Arizona must be registered with MVD. Those registration fees, along with flight property, aircraft dealer licensing and aviation fuel taxes – paid by pilots and aircraft owners – go toward the state aviation fund.

In less than a year, spectacular ramps and bridges have risen from bare ground in the southeast Valley. By this fall, they’ll link 12 miles of new high occupancy vehicle lanes on the Loop 202 (Santan Freeway) with Interstate 10 and the Loop 101 (Price Freeway) in Chandler -- see the project's progress in the slide show above.

Sometimes the simplest concepts work the best. Take for example the truck-mounted attenuator. Maybe you aren’t too familiar with them, but chances are you’ve seen one when driving on the freeway.

On June 6, more than 300 soldiers with the 40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion returned home to Ft. Huachuca after serving in Iraq for the past year. These soldiers were welcomed by family, friends and community – but, many also were greeted with the fact that there is so much to take care after you’ve been away from home for 12 months.

Last month we told you about the thousands who take on the immense task of cleaning up Arizona’s roads through ADOT’s Adopt a Highway program – more than 800 tons of trash is picked up off the state highways each year because of these volunteers!

If you drive Valley freeways during rush hour, you’re probably pretty familiar with ramp meters … They’re the two-light signals positioned at most Valley on-ramps that tell motorists when it’s okay to head onto the freeway. Ramp meters have been used in the Phoenix-Metro area for about the past 20 years and maybe you think not much about them has changed … but, actually they’ve recently become much more efficient!

‘Why are the cones and barricades still up, but no one is working?!?!?’ If you’ve ever driven by an empty freeway work zone, you might have wondered this yourself. But, despite how things may appear, there still is a risk to the traveling public, which means those barricades are very necessary.