Happy birthday to the ADOT Blog!

One year ago today we launched this blog and now, 12 months later, we’re trying to figure out how to mark the anniversary…

At first we thought maybe a post on why we started this blog in the first place was in order, but then we figured we’d just direct you to our very first entry to cover that.

Next, we contemplated writing a comprehensive essay on the history of transportation in Arizona and the importance of a freeway system that is able to move people and things to where they need to go … it was going to be brilliant. But, then we remembered someone’s already done that and we blogged about it in February.

So, what to do? How about we just keep it simple by saying, thank you for reading and watching our videos! We hope you’ll continue to come back and check out what we’re working on here on the ADOT Blog because we’ve got a lot in store for the months ahead.

Before we go, we want to take a look back at the past year and re-share some of our favorite posts (it was tough to choose)…

Who could forget our introduction to the ALERT team last April? This is the ADOT crew that responds to incidents and crashes on our freeways. They assist on scene, close down the road and set up detours.

The Adopt a Highway program was highlighted in May. We owe a big thanks to the thousands of volunteers who take on that cleanup effort!

Did you study? ADOT’s MVD offers practice driver license tests online and we blogged about it in June.

This blog post from July started off with a bang! As the video shows, there is some terrain that is so rough and rocky even heavy-duty machinery can’t break through and that’s when blasting is necessary.

There’s a lot of Arizona sunshine and ADOT puts it to good use. In August we wrote about a pilot program to test out the use of solar power for vehicle emergency lights.

We like writing about bridges and in September we were happy to report the residents of Mescal and J-Six Ranch got their bridge back and were able to say goodbye to a lengthy detour.

Back in October we showed a video about caissons – the massive steel-and-concrete pillars that make up a bridge’s substructure. It gives an awesome view from the top of these massive structures and the post is one of our most popular with nearly 3,500 page views!

This was an interesting video and blog post … all about sand jacks and false work, the temporary structures used to build bridges, tunnels and box culverts.

Know what an attenuator is? Read this blog post from December to find out.

January brought in a new year and a new look at building a freeway.

It was just a couple of months ago, but we remember the excitement surrounding Arizona’s centennial. Here on the blog, we chronicled a day in the life of ADOT.

In March we discovered some green dirt and told you all about it.

This month isn’t over, but why not take another look at this post on the start of construction on the SR 24.

Wow … what a year it has been!