It’s an exciting day for us here on the ADOT Blog.

Not only are we celebrating the blog’s third birthday, today we’re also marking our 500th blog post!

Time sure does fly. It seems like just yesterday we were welcoming readers to the brand new ADOT Blog – a space we promised would be used to help give people a better understanding of how this state’s transportation system is planned, built and maintained.

As we look back to that very first post, we are struck by how different things were ... way back then.

OK, we know 2011 isn’t ancient history and we realize that 36 months isn’t much time compared with the 100-plus years of Arizona’s transportation history, but if you join us today as we reminisce (isn’t that what birthdays are all about?), we think you’ll see what we mean.

For instance, when we started this blog, the 14 miles of Loop 303 between I-17 and Happy Valley Parkway hadn’t opened yet. And, all the work and progress that’s happening on Loop 303 north of I-10 wasn’t even started when we launched the blog.

We can’t leave out US 89. Back when the ADOT Blog started, the now landslide-damaged road was still operational and would be for another 22 months.

What other big transportation changes/accomplishments have occurred since the start of the ADOT Blog? Let’s take a look back at some of our top project-related blog posts:

• Improvements to SR 87, a major link between the metro Phoenix area and Payson, were completed in 2011. Remember this blog post and video?
• Just about six months after a fiery crash damaged the Mescal Road/J-Six Ranch Road Bridge in March 2011, ADOT swiftly rebuilt the bridge to reconnect the Cochise County communities of Mescal and J-Six Ranch, which were separated by I-10 and depend on the overpass for convenient access to goods, services and neighbors. Who could forget this amazing video of the bridge demo?
• Twenty miles south of Flagstaff, the I-17 Munds Park traffic interchange underwent a complete reconstruction in 2011 (northbound bridge) and 2012 (southbound bridge).
• We blogged about another substantial project up in northern Arizona, the I-17/SR 69 Cordes Junction Traffic Interchange.

Of course, that’s just a small fraction of the projects ADOT has worked on and completed over the past three years and it’s just a small fraction of the project posts we’ve published.

But projects aren’t all we’ve blogged about…

In order to better explain transportation and help give readers a better understanding of the state highway system, we have developed a few series that we’re quite proud of, including Transportation Defined, From the ADOT Archives, Vehicles of ADOT and Science of Transportation.

There’s more and we could keep looking back over the past three years and 500 posts, but we’re ready to move ahead. So stay tuned – we have so many more updates, videos and articles all planned for the future. We’re excited for the next 500 posts and can’t wait to see what the roads look like three years from now.

Happy birthday to the ADOT Blog … thanks for reading!

If you’re reading this post it means you’ve found the ADOT Blog’s new home…

So, what do you think?

We really like the new space and hope you’ll take some time to look around and see how the entire ADOT website has been redesigned with you in mind.

That’s right, after receiving a lot of feedback and putting in many (many) hours, ADOT’s Web Team has created a new site that’s organized to help you discover exactly what you need.

Whether you’re looking for MVD locations, the latest on a project, information on doing business with ADOT or the latest news, you’ll find it all on the new site – it’s just been arranged a little differently in an effort to make your experience better.

After you’ve had a while to look around and take it all in, let us know what you think. You can leave a comment here on the blog, or provide your thoughts by clicking on the feedback tab on the left side of the site.

Happy holiday season, everyone!

It’s hard to believe the year is coming to a close, but we sure have enjoyed being able to share this blog with you in 2012.

We’re of course going to keep on posting in 2013, but we’re taking a little break after Friday (You’ll definitely want to come back here tomorrow, though. We’ve got a new video for you, along with some information on a construction project milestone!).

Before the blog goes on its week-long vacation, we wanted to let you know about a few important items…

• It’s just the blog that’s taking a holiday break! All ADOT and MVD offices will be open EXCEPT for Tuesday, Dec. 25 and Tuesday, Jan. 1 when they’ll close in recognition of the Christmas and New Year holidays. 
• There are plenty of places to find ADOT information online during the holidays. You can visit ADOT’s website and the ADOT Twitter feed for updates, and if you’re looking for detailed traffic conditions, you can always call 511 or head over to az511.gov.

Finally, we hope you all stay safe and have a very happy holiday!!

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!

We started this blog back in April with a definite vision in mind…,>

Informing readers about ADOT projects, programs and services was certainly our aim, but we also wanted to give some insight on why and how we do things around here and maybe even highlight some cool facts about our state’s transportation system.

Here we are, 100 blog posts (and nearly 55,000 page views and 34,000 YouTube views) later, and we seem to be well on our way to achieving those goals.

We’re proud of the 100-post milestone and the direction we’re going, but there’s still a lot of road to cover!

So, before we get to work on the next 100 posts, we wanted to check in with our readers and get a little feedback from you...

Tell us (either here or on our Facebook page) about the types of stories and videos you want to see more of. Which stories have been the most helpful or interesting so far? What transportation questions haven’t yet been answered?

Most importantly, we just want to say thank you for reading! We really appreciate everyone who takes the time to visit (and comment on) our blog!

And to show our appreciation, we bring you the first-ever ADOT Blog Top 10 List…

Top 10 things to expect if you read all 100 posts on the ADOT Blog

10)  Seeing each of the eight freeway-sized ‘welcome to Arizona’ signs will become No. 1 on your bucket list.

9)  You’ll start to develop several detailed theories on who (or what) decorates I-17’s mystery tree each year.

8)  You’ll think oversize loads are as cool as we do!

7)  You’ll realize you, too, have a burning question about ramp meters (it has received the most questions of any post).

6)  You’ll want to watch and re-watch all our videos.

5)  You will have no problem spotting the subtle differences between Clearview and Highway Gothic type faces.

4)  It might take a few tries, but you’ll ace the driver license online practice test.

3)  You’ll appreciate this.

2)  You’ll finally know the secret to a clean I-10 tunnel.

1)  You will be able to use ‘wattle’ in a sentence.