EDITOR'S NOTE: During this unprecedented time, ADOT is creating transportation activities for kids. Please visit azdot.gov/ADOTKids or use the hashtag #ADOTKids on ADOT's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to see what we have going on. 

By Steve Elliott / ADOT Communications

Over the past several weeks, Friday afternoons have been my favorite time. That's because I get to see videos in which ADOT experts answer your questions about snowplows, bridges and more that are featured in ADOT Kids activities. Today, I'm happy to introduce a video in which Tom Herrmann answers your questions about the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway. I also get to post the freeway designs and landscaping you created during our latest weekly activity. Great job, everyone! 

About the video: Mr. Herrmann is a public information officer who specializes in major projects including the South Mountain Freeway. It's a big job that requires him to learn about a lot of complex things and then explain them to the public. He works closely with the engineers who designed and built the 22-mile South Mountain Freeway, which opened in December and connects the West Valley and East Valley in the Phoenix area. 

I hope you're enjoying this week's new Keep It Grand coloring challenge. If you share your art to [email protected] by next Wednesday, May 20, we'll post it in a slideshow. 

It's hard to believe that we created ADOT Kids just a little more than a month ago. Since then, we have provided posts and activities pretty much every day. With so many staying at home, we thought ADOT Kids would be a fun way to help everyone feel connected and learn how interesting it is to work in transportation. What we do has a lot to do with science, technology, engineering (obviously) and math. If you've enjoyed these activities, and I hope you have, please consider putting civil engineering onto your list of possible careers. Someday you could help get everyone safely home.

We've enjoyed doing ADOT Kids so much that we're going to continue it even as we all transition back to a more normal routine. We won't be posting every day from now on, but we'll have new activities on the ADOT Blog every month or so. In the meantime, please keep checking the ADOT Kids website at azdot.gov/ADOTKids. You'll find lots of interesting things there.

Now for the most important thing to share: your great art! Thanks, ADOT Kids. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: During this unprecedented time, ADOT is creating transportation activities for kids. Please visit azdot.gov/ADOTKids or use the hashtag #ADOTKids on ADOT's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to see what we have going on.

By Steve Elliott / ADOT Communications

I hope you've enjoyed our latest ADOT Kids activity focusing on the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway and how we use designs and landscaping to make freeways nice places to be. Please remember to send us your freeway design art by 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 13, so we can include it in our slideshow of everyone's work.

If you've finished your design and are looking to do something else fun, some creative people I work with have come up with a word search and a construction zone maze. Depending on your age and interests, you can print one or both by clicking the images below.

You'll find these and other activities at the ADOT Kids home page, azdot.gov/ADOTKids. 

Have fun, everyone!

South Mountain Freeway word search:

Work zone maze:

Please visit azdot.gov/ADOTKids or use the hashtag #ADOTKids on ADOT's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to see what we have going on.

By David Rookhuyzen / ADOT Communications

Our ADOT Kids post announcing our latest activity on decorating freeways had facts and figures about the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, which opened last December. I hope you were paying attention, since we're giving you a chance to put your knowledge to the test! 

Please take the quiz below and then see how well your parents or friends can do! We won't tell if you look back at our original post before proceeding. 

And remember, we still want to see how you would decorate the freeway! Make sure to check out our previous post to find a downloadable coloring page to show off your highway art. Have an adult take a picture or scan your artwork and send it to us at [email protected]. We'll post every design we receive by 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 13, in a slideshow that we'll post Friday, May 15.

EDITOR'S NOTE: During this unprecedented time, ADOT is creating transportation activities for kids. Please visit azdot.gov/ADOTKids or use the hashtag #ADOTKids on ADOT's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to see what we have going on. 

By Steve Elliott / ADOT Communications

Wow! Thank you for all of the safety messages you kids shared with us over the past week. 

From this one by Bria in Peoria ...

WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING
WE'RE NOT PLAYING 
PIN THE TAIL
ON THE DONKEY

... to this one by Allisson in Gila Bend ...

DON'T SPEED
OR YOU WILL BE
SPEEDILY IN JAIL

... every one of these creative messages showed how much you all care about keeping Arizona safe. We had a great time reading them. 

As promised, the video at right has Doug Pacey, our safety projects manager in ADOT Communications, answering your questions and featuring some of your messages. I hope you enjoy it. 

Before we show your art, I hope you're all making freeway decorations for this week's ADOT Kids activity. And in addition to sending us your designs, please share questions about the new Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway. That's the largest single highway project in Arizona history. One of the people in charge of building that 22-mile freeway will answer questions about anything that interests you, from the designs to the bridges to the pavement. Please send your questions to [email protected]. 

Now let's look at your great messages!

Please visit azdot.gov/ADOTKids or use the hashtag #ADOTKids on ADOT's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to see what we have going on. 

By Caroline Carpenter / ADOT Communications

If you're still trying to brainstorm some ideas for art along the South Mountain Freeway, we have a series of videos to inspire you! These videos will take you along as the project progresses and detail how the 22-mile highway came to be.

Please visit azdot.gov/ADOTKids or use the hashtag #ADOTKids on ADOT's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to see what we have going on.

By Tom Herrmann / ADOT Communications

The next time you’re riding in the passenger seat or back seat down the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, or perhaps another freeway closer to you, take a few minutes to gaze out of the window. But don’t look at the mountains or a beautiful sunset. Instead, look at the colorful designs on the bridges, ramps and sound walls. Look at the plants too.

An ADOT team creates designs for a freeway based on either the history or the current use of the land. If you drive over the Salt River on the South Mountain Freeway, you can see images that look like waves of water passing over desert rocks. In the West Valley, the South Mountain Freeway designs are inspired by the area’s agricultural past. In Ahwatukee, the freeway's designs are inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the greatest architects in American history. He once worked in that area.

ADOT also decides which plants and other landscaping accents will help make a highway beautiful. 

The video at right shows you designs and the landscaping along the 22-mile South Mountain Freeway.

But what if those walls, bridges and ramps were blank? What would you draw on them? Would they be animals or saguaros? What plants and colored rock would be in the landscaping? This ADOT Kids activity asks you to make those choices and create your own freeway designs.

It isn't just the South Mountain Freeway with neat designs. The new State Route 87 interchange with Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson has designs inspired by cotton grown in that area. In Tucson, sound walls at the new Ajo Way interchange with Interstate 19 have images of mountains and saguaros that speak to that area's landscape. If you need more inspiration, the slideshow at right has images of highway designs around the state. 

Not everyone is fortunate to have beautiful designs on walls and bridges. The first time my dad came to Arizona, he was surprised by images of desert plants on the sound walls that separate the freeway from buildings. Near his home in Ohio, freeway walls are just that: a gray concrete wall with no decoration.

Fortunately, in Arizona we use freeway designs to help tell the story of an area.

For a different perspective on the South Mountain Freeway's design, check out the video at right shot using our drone.

Print out the coloring sheet and draw your own freeway design!

Make a freeway beautiful using the coloring sheet linked here and posted at bottom right. Or draw your own from scratch. Add your own designs and colors. Pick and locate plants. Will you use decorative rock? All of the choices are up to you.

Here some interesting freeway fun facts ...

• The freeway looks like it’s all concrete, but it includes enough steel rebar weighing 40 million pounds. That's about the same as 3,100 elephants!
• To build the freeway, we moved enough dirt to fill State Farm Stadium, where the Arizona Cardinals play, six times!
• We moved more than 1,000 desert plants – saguaros, palo verde trees and more – out of the freeway route and replanted them when the work was finished. Here's a video of how we did that for a project along Loop 101 in Scottsdale. 
• Ever heard of a chuckwalla? They’re small lizards that lived on South Mountain. We moved about 120 of them to keep them safe during construction. Here's a video of the relocation.
• How did the jackrabbit cross the road? There are five crossings under the freeway where people and animals can get safety from one side of the road to the other.

EDITOR'S NOTE: During this unprecedented time, ADOT is creating transportation activities for kids. Please visit azdot.gov/ADOTKids or use the hashtag #ADOTKids on ADOT's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to see what we have going on.

By Steve Elliott / ADOT Communications

I hope you've enjoyed this week's ADOT Kids activity on creating safety messages like the ones we put above highways around Arizona. The messages and colorings you've shared have been great. 

Please remember that every message we receive by 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 6, will go into a slideshow we'll share on the ADOT Blog on Friday, May 8. Please have an adult scan or take a picture of yours and email it to [email protected]. 

Now, for today's topic ...

Because our goal at ADOT is for everyone to get safely home, one of the ways we celebrate safety is an annual calendar featuring drawings by children and grandchildren of our employees. Every month features a drawing created by a young person, such as the cover drawing at right by Hollie Allen.

I hope you enjoy looking the art and safety messages and are inspired to create drawings and safety messages of your own to share with relatives and friends. Safety is everyone's responsibility, and kids can play a big part in that. 

Let's look at each month's drawing and the safety topic it features. You'll notice that some of these relate to the work we do at ADOT, while others are tips that everyone can use. You can click on any drawing to see a larger version.

What kind of safety drawings and messages could you create for the things you, your family, your friends and your classmates do every day?  

January

February

March

April

May

June 

July

August

September

October

November

December

EDITOR'S NOTE: During this unprecedented time, ADOT is creating transportation activities for kids. Please visit azdot.gov/ADOTKids or use the hashtag #ADOTKids on ADOT's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to see what we have going on.

By Steve Elliott / ADOT Communications

Kids, are using #Zoom for the classroom or to catch up with friends? Our free Zoom video downloads will show you what an earthmover can do, take you over the San Francisco Peaks or to the red rocks of Sedona. #ADOTKids #AZTogether #Zoombackground pic.twitter.com/7NgehAoPm5

— Arizona DOT (@ArizonaDOT) May 4, 2020

Question: What could be better than the Zoom video backgrounds we shared last week, the ones with drone views, a very wide load, a snowblaster and more?

Answer: More Zoom video backgrounds! You'll find six new ones below, and the video in the tweet at right shows them all.

A recent blog post had some tips on using Zoom virtual backgrounds. Here are a few more on how to use video backgrounds. The Zoom website also has some good tips. 

Here's how to download our backgrounds.

1. Click on an image to see the video you want to use.
2. Once you get to our Vimeo site, scroll down past the video and look for the "Download" button. It will be at the bottom right of the page.
3. Download the video and save to your computer.
4. Then, when you start your next Zoom session, you can upload your virtual Zoom video as your background.

If regular pictures are more your style, not to worry. We have plenty of photo backgrounds as well. 

Reminder for kids: It's important to check with your teacher first if you want to use these backgrounds during class. 

Without further ado, here are six new backgrounds sure to impress friends during Zoom meetings. 

Earthmover:

Attenuator truck:

Freeway traffic:

Another wide load:

Sedona highway:

San Francisco Peaks:

EDITOR'S NOTE: During this unprecedented time, ADOT is creating transportation activities for kids. Please visit azdot.gov/ADOTKids or use the hashtag #ADOTKids on ADOT's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to see what we have going on. 

By Garin Groff / ADOT Communications

We’re excited that so many kids wanted to learn more about bridges and also that so many of you shared your bridge drawings with us!

We’ve already explained some of the work that goes into designing, building and maintaining bridges, and then we asked you to share questions you have about bridges. And you had lots of great questions! The video at right has answers from David Benton, ADOT’s bridge design manager. And here are some others, also with Mr. Benton's help: 

What is the longest bridge in Arizona?

While the video highlights the Mile-Long Bridge on Loop 202 in Tempe (a mile is 5,280 feet), after this activity ended we realized there's an even longer one. An elevated section of Interstate 10 near the "Stack" interchange with Interstate 17, just west of downtown Phoenix, is 7,111 feet long, making it the longest bridge in Arizona. Those are two very long bridges!  

How do bridges withstand earthquakes?

You might be surprised by this, but bridges can be built to move and wiggle like a spring when an earthquake hits. This allows the bridge to move along with the earthquake so the bridge parts don’t get damaged. And if they do get damaged, those parts can be fixed and the bridge can still stand.

How do you fix the parts of a bridge that are underwater if they break?

Fixing bridge parts underwater is tricky. In most cases, the best way to fix a bridge part that is underwater is to pump the water away so the construction workers can get to it and make repairs.

Why are triangles strong?

Triangles are strong when you put them together with a lot of other triangles. The reason they can be so strong is because some of the three sides of that triangle can be pushed and pulled. When those sides work together as a team, they can take a lot of weight. Check out how to build a popsicle stick bridge on the internet and you can find out ways to build these triangles!

Thanks again for all these great questions. Now let’s look at everyone’s great artwork!

https://fb.watch/rPLKIf0W6c/EDITOR'S NOTE: During this unprecedented time, ADOT is creating transportation activities for kids. Please visit azdot.gov/ADOTKids or use the hashtag #ADOTKids on ADOT's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to see what we have going on.