When seen from above, a simple ordinary thing can suddenly transform. 

So it is with the engineering marvel that is the Loop 202 South Mountain-Interstate 10 interchange. What may seem like yet another highway convergence when seen from ground level becomes a vision of beauty when seen through the lens of a drone.  

Looking down, we see an aesthetically pleasing swirl of roadways with gentle curves and graceful lines, but there are some wonderful details that keep the eye focused. 

For example, the  roadways are not of one dimension but rise to four different levels, starting at the ground and elevating higher.  

You can also see varying roadway widths as the number of vehicle lanes fluctuates from one to four. 

Pleasing geometric shapes also meet our gaze, from surfaces that are long and rectangular to others that bend in graceful angles.

What’s more, were you to fold the image down the middle, you would find two halves that nearly mirror each other. 

Finally, shadows from late afternoon sun form yet another pleasant visual element. 

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Art of Transportation
We think there is beauty in transportation. It’s not all hard hats and pavement. Art of Transportation is a blog series featuring unique photos our team has taken while on the road or on a construction project.

What exactly are we looking at here?

No, we didn't catch any unidentified flying objects. Instead it's an extraordinary long-exposure photo of a pretty ordinary thing – jet airliners taking off out of Sky Harbor International Airport.

Why, you ask, are we sharing a photo from an airport? Shouldn't we be looking down at the highway?

Well, consider this a reminder that ADOT encompasses more than just building and maintaining state highways and freeways (though we spend a lot of time on that too!). As we've talked about in previous blogs, in 1974 the Arizona Highway Department was merged with the Aeronautics Department to create the Arizona Department of Transportation. To this day ADOT continues to play a role in airport development, the Motor Vehicle Divsion registers aircraft and ADOT operates the Grand Canyon National Park Airport. 

With all that in mind, feel free to fly away on this fantastic shot!

Here at ADOT we are currently taking a long look at things.

Our Tentative Five-Year Construction Program is now up for public comment (please give it a look and tell us what you think!), the voluntary Travel ID deadline has been extended until May 2023, and we are gearing up for the nearly four-year process of rebuilding Interstate 10, including the Broadway Curve.

Speaking of the Broadway Curve, crews have been out several weekends now for pre-construction survey work along I-10. While looking at this massive project that will affect I-10 between the Loop 202 (Santan/South Mountain Freeway) and Interstate 17, it was only natural that an ADOT photographer snapped this shot. 

As you might know, this is a long exposure photo of traffic on I-10 near the I-17 "Split," which creates this mesmorizing blur of tailights and headlights as cars zip toward their destination and into the future. We can certainly relate to that when it comes to this exciting new project we are embarking on soon.

And after you take a good long look at this fantastic photo, make sure to subscribe for updates so you are aware of what's going on as we zip into the future together.

We here at ADOT like the details. 

Our engineers obsess over grades, curves, speeds, traffic volume, materials and geotechnical data, while other employees busy themselves with permits, biological impacts, landscaping, and safety. 

Maybe that's why our ADOT photographers like to find fine-detailed shots like the one below. You'll probably recognize instantly that it's a series of rivets, but will need a bit of help identifying them as those holding together the bridge along the nature trail at Cochise Stronghold, southeast of Dragoon. 

This shot – and the "A325" rivets we see in it – is a good reminder that it's important to pay attention to the details. 

How do you pick a single theme for beautifying the 22-mile Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway?

That was the question facing the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Roadside Development Section once work began on the new $2 billion freeway, which today provides a much needed alternative to Interstate 10 through downtown Phoenix.

After considerable discussion, the answer was, you don’t.

“This was the largest project we have ever done,” said Joseph Salazar, project team leader for ADOT's Landscape Architecture and Aesthetics. “We wanted to show a diversity of ideas, multiple themes reflecting different areas.”

As ADOT recently commemorated the one-year anniversary of the opening of the freeway, Salazar described the different art ideas along the bridges, sound walls and landforms of the ambitious project.

If diversity was sought, it was found in forms ranging from Hohokam images to geometric stripes in brilliant hues of green, red and yellow. Simple shapes reflect the area’s landscape, animals, history and vegetation. Bold angles and lines signify the more urban nature as the freeway turns toward downtown Phoenix. You can see a sampling of all these designs in the Flickr album to the right.

Working along with the project team were artists from the Cosanti and Frank Lloyd Wright foundations, as well as others.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s influence in the freeway's Ahwatukee section stems from the 1920s Ocotillo camp, near what is now 32nd Street, where Wright produced designs for a desert resort that was never built due to the 1929 stock market crash.

“The architectural camp site still exists, but all of the buildings are gone,” Salazar said.

The walls of Wright’s camp featured horizontal lines echoing the desert floor and long horizons, so freeway sound walls in that area have horizontal lines, in contrast to vertical lines on other Valley freeways.  

Symmetrical waves with curling tops march in a pattern against a red background near the Salt River. Toward Laveen, two-toned green leaves with “Arcosanti leaf portals” harken to the agricultural areas of Laveen, Salazar said.

“Once you cross the Salt River Bridge, we see the urban link pattern that represents the urbanization of the Valley and the urban link of the I-10 coming together with Loop 202, the two highways coming together,” he said.

As you drive along the one-year-old freeway, consider how the artwork represents agriculture, urbanization, the Salt and Gila rivers, Paolo Saleri and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Bringing natural forms onto roads and bridges was the idea behind the artwork on the new Happy Valley Road bridge over Interstate 17.

By now, many motorists have likely noticed the purple slashes and blue diamonds on a white background that adorn the new overpass wall. Metal pipes form gentle swells along the wall, adding to abstractions that, put together, form the shape and color of natural mountains.

“Blue diamonds are like stars merging with the landform silhouettes,” said Joe Salazar,  aesthetic designer/coordinator for aesthetic landscaping and designs for ADOT.

On the concrete just below the wall is a line of brown diamonds, representing the thorns of the Sonoran Desert saguaro. This abstraction is taken a step further with the vertical patterns on the sides of the bridge. These represent the ribbing of the saguaro, he said.

“It is unfolding the trunk of the saguaro, laying it out and putting the pattern over the wall,” Salazar said, “It is a continuation of the saguaro.”

And that's the pattern you are seeing in the lower photo to the right.

The new overpass that bears this design is an integral part of a safety- and traffic-flow improvement project encompassing I-17 interchanges at Happy Valley and Pinnacle Peak roads in north Phoenix.

The project also included the new diverging diamond intersection at Happy Valley. In addition to reconstructing the traffic interchanges, ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration have added a travel lane on I-17 and replaced a box culvert on Pinnacle Peak Road to the east of I-17.

For Salazar, who was joined in the project by Phoenix artist Daniel Mayer, the artwork on the new intersection reflects the surrounding natural environment.

“If you drive along I-17 and look at your surroundings you will see what is remaining of the natural desert,” he said. “I was trying to bring that in.”

For more information about this joint Arizona Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration project, visit the project's page on our website.

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Art of Transportation
We think there is beauty in transportation. It’s not all hard hats and pavement. Art of Transportation is a blog series featuring unique photos our team has taken while on the road or on a construction project.

The blue mountains depicted on the wall at Interstate 19 and Ajo Way in Tucson mirror the hills rising behind it – an aesthetic touch that is definitely intentional.

The triangular representations are paired with similarly geometric shapes in the same bold blue. Birds, butterflies and saguaros adorn the walls of the new construction.

This beautification is but icing on the cake, a visual gift in addition to the the benefits of safety and ease of driving that are the core of the two-phase project that revamped the interchange. Improvements included reconstructing and widening northbound and southbound I-19; creating a “braided” ramp alignment and replacing both the Michigan Avenue pedestrian bridge and the Ajo Way bridge over the Santa Cruz River.

This close-up is among a host of other photos taken of the project by John Dougherty, ADOT's Video Services supervisor, whose images illustrate many of our Art of Transportation blog posts. You can find many more showing off the completed project on our Flickr page.  

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Art of Transportation
We think there is beauty in transportation. It’s not all hard hats and pavement. Art of Transportation is a blog series featuring unique photos our team has taken while on the road or on a construction project.

While construction can seem slow at times, big projects are always advancing upward. That's why we love this captivating photo that draws our focus upward.

The dynamic and a bit metaphorical shot below shows crews hard (and high) at work building the supports for the new bridge on US 60 over Pinto Creek. As you can see, things are defintely going in the right direction to complete this important project. The sun is even shining down, with the line of the lens flare meeeting the line of the rebar.

It may not be as fun as watching rock blasting, but you can still see that things are looking up for the new bridge.

Art of Transportation
We think there is beauty in transportation. It’s not all hard hats and pavement. Art of Transportation is a blog series featuring unique photos our team has taken while on the road or on a construction project.

As you may be aware, construction isn't always a breeze.

There are delays, restrictions and a lot of hard work, but that doesn't mean there aren't the occasional moments when things are light, pleasant and, well, breezy.

That's what our camera captured in the sky above the work along Interstate 40 to rebuild the interchange bridges at Meteor City Road. But these clouds (we think they are cirrus clouds, but we're not experts) aren't the only things merrily floating along. As we told you about in August, thanks to a new bridge building technique, this project is being completed in only a fraction of the time it would have taken.

And that has us on cloud nine. 

Sometimes construction can seem blurry, like it will keep going on forever. But if you look closer you can see what's being done. 

At least that's the lesson we are taking from this photo of the crisp and clear dirt-encrusted tracks of this otherwise blurry earth mover. We have quite a few projects happening throughout the state right now, but keep watching to see what comes out of it.