“Jeopardy!,” in its current iteration, has been on the air continuously since September 10, 1984. That includes close to 10,000 episodes spanning five decades.

So it came as a surprise to us over here at ADOT that our state highways were referenced not once, but TWICE in a few months.

The first instance occurred in July. The category was “Road.” The clue was: “In Phoenix, The Stack is the name for the interchange where I-17, going north-south, meets this east-west interstate. The correct response, of course, is Interstate10.

The second time came in September. The category was “Same first and last letter geography.” The clue: “Driving I-40 from Winslow to Kingman, you might want to stop in this city and maybe take in the Museum of Northern Arizona.” The answer is Flagstaff.

What ties these two events together, aside from the highway references, is that not a single contestant got either clue right. Nobody even hazarded a guess on the I-40 one.

Check out both questions on our Instagram page, conveniently embedded right below this text.

Has your job or special skill ever appeared on “Jeopardy!”?? Let us know!

 

 

 

 

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As with many ADOT freeway improvement projects, the mission was a challenge: build two new interchanges along Loop 303 west of Interstate 17 in one year.

Well, the project team came through before Labor Day, which is symbolic given the holiday is certainly associated with hard work.

We’re glad to report the new Loop 303 interchanges at 43rd and 51st avenues are open. It wasn’t just a matter of adding new ramps at each of those cross streets. This was an acceleration of an extensive project that had been scheduled in the future. 

With regional economic development efforts a key factor, the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) and city of Phoenix huddled with ADOT to arrange for the project to be built sooner. The interchanges now provide additional access to the area around the giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company plant that is under construction.

The ADOT project team accepted the challenge and got to work on the $70 million project last fall. New bridges were built to carry Loop 303 over 43rd and 51st avenues. Until now, freeway traffic had been traveling on “interim” pavement along the paths for planned on- and off-ramps near the future (and now open) interchanges.

New sections of the mainline freeway lanes were constructed to go with the new bridges. A new westbound frontage road now extends between 43rd and 51st avenues. Drainage facilities were built, including storm drains, box culverts and new concrete channels. The 51st Avenue interchange was relocated slightly west before work started to match the city’s realignment of the cross street.

ADOT was able to meet the goal of a year-long construction schedule by instituting strategies for acquiring necessary components, including traffic signal poles, in advance of the project.

The prime contractor on the Loop 303 project, Fisher Sand and Gravel Co., was proactive in working with ADOT to get the job done. 

Of course we need to thank area drivers for their patience during the construction. The good news is that those weekend closures between I-17 and Lake Pleasant Parkway have ended. MAG, Phoenix and many drivers are starting to look ahead to a project to finish direct ramps connecting I-17 and Loop 303, pending available funding. 

ADOT plans and constructs new freeways, additional lanes and other improvements in the Phoenix area as part of the Regional Transportation Plan for the Maricopa County region. Most projects are funded in part by Proposition 400, a dedicated sales tax approved by Maricopa County voters in 2004.

For more information about Valley freeway projects, please visit ADOT’s website. Information about MAG and the Phoenix region’s efforts to advance the new Loop 303 interchanges is here.

In those years just before a freeway improvement project is ready to start, we’re all allowed to imagine what it will be like once the work is done. On I-10 in the Buckeye area, the imagination has become reality. 

ADOT’s $82 million project to add new third lanes and other improvements along the 8-mile stretch of I-10 between Verrado Way and State Route 85 is officially done. That means no more weekend or overnight restrictions are planned. You’re allowed to applaud.

I remember being in Buckeye when the project started in July 2021. What a difference two years has made.

As someone who has done quite a bit of driving in the area, including those trips to Disneyland or San Diego, the wider I-10 is a sight for sore eyes. Fresh pavement and lane stripes are certainly pluses too. But this project also is about local travel for residents of the growing Buckeye community.

The upgraded I-10 interchanges at Watson and Miller roads are now operating using the increasingly popular diverging diamond design. By now those of you who are local drivers at those interchanges are plenty familiar with how traffic moves through diverging diamonds. Experience tells me they’re a big improvement and ready to serve the community for decades to come.

Projects like this are never easy. ADOT and its team of contractors do their best to keep the traffic moving as much as possible, but we understand it’s not easy when you’re part of the slow going in any particular work zone. For that, we thank you for your patience and hope that the upgraded stretch of I-10 is now worth it.

We appreciate the teamwork between contractors, city of Buckeye officials and the ADOT crew in getting the job done on schedule. Our job as drivers is never-ending. Be alert, buckle up, never drive while impaired and share the road on this much better stretch of I-10.

I hope you’ve heard the news that ADOT has started the first of 23 projects to repair damaged pavement following the record-setting winter. More of these projects will be starting in the coming weeks to remove and replace damaged surface pavement, mainly in parts of northern Arizona prone to snow and freeze-thaw cycles. 

We’re also excited to share a new website, azdot.gov/PavingRepairs, designed to keep Arizonans up to date on the $50.5 million in repair projects already scheduled for this summer, as well as $94 million in planned additional pavement repairs. This includes $54 million elected leaders have committed to for pavement repairs in rural areas and $40 million proposed in ADOT’s five-year construction program scheduled for consideration Friday by the State Transportation Board.

We’ll update the website with these additional projects as they are developed. 

This website is one more way we’re keeping you up to date on projects and driving conditions around Arizona. If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll make regular use of ADOT’s Arizona Traveler Information site at az511.gov and consider downloading the AZ511 app. As always, you can rely on us for social media updates on Twitter (@ArizonaDOT) as well as Facebook and Instagram. 

Summer is on the horizon, and that traditionally means the start of ADOT’s pavement repair season. After an unusually harsh winter, we’re gearing up for even more projects across the state.

In addition to pavement projects already in the works, including repaving southbound I-17 between Flagstaff and the Yavapai County line, ADOT is about to begin the first of 23 projects to repair pavement, mainly in northern Arizona, after the record-setting winter. The State Transportation Board approved $50.5 million for these projects, which will extend through the summer. 

The state budget approved for the fiscal year beginning July 1 includes even more funding for these repair projects, which consist of removing and replacing areas of damaged surface pavement. Most of these areas are in higher elevations where freeze-thaw cycles stress pavement.

The interactive video above, from our I-17 paving project south of Flagstaff, shows how crews apply a new overlay of asphalt after the top layer has already been milled away. Click anywhere on the video to change your view.

Pavement maintenance is a year-round priority at ADOT, and the work the video shows, sometimes referred to as a mill and fill, is one of the more involved responses.

In addition, you may see crews replacing temporary patches with larger, permanent ones to repaving miles of a highway. Some of this work will consist of spot repairs replacing a small area around a pothole. In those cases, crews will cut out a larger section of pavement until reaching a solid base underneath. Then a crew applies an oil-based product before filling the area with asphalt. To complete the repair, a roller compacts the new material.

Where worn pavement extends for longer distances, a large milling machine will remove the top couple inches of pavement spanning a single lane or the entire roadway. These sections could stretch for a few hundred feet or even a mile. 

While the schedule for the 23 projects mentioned above is still being developed, we’ve already announced the locations here. The project locations all include spot work, meaning select sections of the highway will be patched or repaved. One exception: An entire 20-mile-long section of State Route 260 will be repaved this summer.

The work will include daytime and nighttime work, depending on the area and what is safest for work crews and the traveling public.

There are a lot of funny sounding tools and instruments that help ADOT maintain the state's highways.

You've heard of Distance Measurement Instruments and even something called the "pokey picker upper," but what in the world is an inclinometer? It sounds like something Wile E. Coyote would purchase from the Acme Corporation. 

It turns out that the term is pretty darn self-descriptive if you read it this way: "incline-o-meter". 

That's right, it's a meter that measures inclines.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about what it does. 

As funny as the name may sound, inclinometers are important tools in highway design and maintenance. Also known as tilt meters or slope indicators, these nifty little measuring devices are critical for safety as they help engineers prevent landslides that can bury a road or wash it away completely. 

"When we cut into a land feature or a slope, it will unbalance the (underlying) forces," said Tad Niemyjski, an engineer overseeing ADOT's Geotechnical Design Team. "If we see an acceleration over time of a slope's movement, then that's when we really have to start stepping in and develop some engineering measures that can slow the movement down."

Those countermeasures can include building a buttress at the base of or reinforcing the soil in the failure area. The trick is finding the vertical extent of earthen failure and that is when we deploy the use of inclinometers. 

"We will build a soil and or rock buttress - essentially an earthen dam at the base," he said.

Other measures include installing infrastructure - essentially a perforated well casing - in the ground to drain and evacuate excess water accumulation. 

Inclinometers are used frequently in many areas of the state, including State Route 87, also known as the Beeline Highway, north of Sunflower between Fountain Hills and Payson.

"At that location in 2006, they had a large part of the roadway slip out and drop and that closed the highway down for some time," Niemyski said.

Who'd have thought such a funny word would be so critical to our roadway  infrastructure? 

Now that you know what an inclinometer is, all you need to do is practice saying it correctly.

Say it with me now: "inkləˈnämədər". See that’s not so hard!

 

 

 

 

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Today is March 14. Or, written another way, 3/14. That makes today "Pi Day."

Pi, which has an approximate value of 3.14, is used to find the area and circumference of a circle. Pi has many applications and engineers at ADOT certainly use it when designing and building the state highway system.

Though most people are familiar with 3.14 being the value of pi, its full value can be calculated to trillions of digits. Here at ADOT, we wanted to mark Pi Day with something fun. So, we went to the 50th digit of pi, found photos with those corresponding digits on our highway signs and edited it all together with a catchy song. 

 

 

 

 

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March is Women’s History Month and we want to take a moment to acknowledge former Arizona Governor Rose Mofford.

Mofford was Arizona’s first female governor, holding the state’s highest office from 1988 to 1991. She was governor when the Interstate 10 Deck Park Tunnel opened in Phoenix. The tunnel was the final segment connecting the transcontinental freeway between Santa Monica, Calif., and Jacksonville, Fla.

But, back to Rose.

Born the child of Croatian immigrants on June 10, 1922, Mofford grew up and graduated from high school in Globe. Mofford was appointed Secretary of State, a role she served between 1977 and 1988. 

Mofford was a champion of the state’s transportation system, overseeing the start of construction on Loop 101 Agua Fria Freeway, the opening of State Route 51, as well as the aforementioned I-10 tunnel project, which was part of the expansion of the Papago Freeway. 

So critical was her leadership to the state and its still-young transportation system that state officials named a stretch of US 60 the “Governor Rose Mofford Memorial Highway.”

Fast-forward to 1990 when the picture of Mofford in the tunnel was taken. It would have been in the twilight of Mofford’s career in public service. One may wonder what she was thinking as the flashbulbs flickered, presiding over the opening of one of the state’s most vital transportation corridors; the most powerful woman in state government and the first female to achieve it. 

Mofford passed away on Sep 15, 2016. She was 94.