You’d be amazed by how much there is to learn just by counting cars (yes, cars…not cards!)… Traffic counts are exactly what the name implies – physical counts of the traffic on a particular road – and ADOT takes them at approximately 1,400 locations around Arizona.

Snow-covered, icy highways get swift attention from ADOT crews each winter, but some routes face factors so severe, that completely closing the road down for a few months is the best option.

ADOT’s Long-Range Transportation Plan was formally adopted earlier this month. ADOT planners will now use the Long-Range Transportation Plan as a guide to build a transportation system designed to carry Arizona into the future! But just who is this group – otherwise known as the State Transportation Board – that adopted the plan?

Before you can build a freeway, you’ve got to move a little dirt... Make that a LOT of dirt, especially in the case of the Loop 303 project under construction right now in the West Valley.

The official start of winter is approaching, but the cold weather is already here! Over the past few weeks, we’ve told you how ADOT prepares for the snowy conditions common this time of year in Arizona’s high country.

The saying, “a photo speaks 1,000 words” holds true when it comes to data. Because, for most people (we’re not talking about the engineers who are out there reading this!) it’s hard to pull real meaning from just a long list of numbers.

Accommodating existing traffic is a key priority when ADOT builds a freeway … Depending on the project, that can mean working out a construction schedule that takes rush hours into account or hiring extra crews to flag and direct traffic through the site.

Back in the early 2000s ADOT started to hear from drivers who said certain stretches of Valley freeways seemed quieter than others. ADOT and the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) noticed a difference, too. It seemed that areas paved with an asphalt rubber friction course (rubberized asphalt), which MAG funded through the Regional Transportation Plan, were less noisy than freeway surfaces with cement concrete pavement.

Back in July we told you all about truck-mounted attenuators and how vital they are to the safety of ADOT employees and drivers out on the road. But, there’s another type of attenuator that acts on the same principle and does just as much to protect motorists...

The improvements to SR 143 are really coming along. In fact, construction now is about 64 percent complete!

2011 is quickly wrapping up and what a year it has been! Here at the ADOT Blog, we’ve enjoyed being able to showcase some of the interesting and exciting things that have happened at the Arizona Department of Transportation this year.