PHOENIX – As the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway advances, bridge girders are being installed this week at two of the 14 planned traffic interchanges, marking the first time on this Arizona Department of Transportation project that these massive support beams are being set at two interchanges in the same week.

Working overnight, crews with Connect 202 Partners, the developer building the South Mountain Freeway, placed 15 steel-reinforced concrete girders over 32nd Street near Pecos Road in Ahwatukee.

Each of the girders weighs 105,000 pounds and is 116 feet long. Two large cranes carefully hoisted and set these girders atop the abutments and piers. Placing a single concrete girder can take up to one hour.

With the 32nd Street girder placement completed, the same crews will move several miles to the northwest and set an additional 16 girders over three nights at the Broadway Road overpass near 59th Avenue in Laveen. The work will occur from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, Friday, Dec. 7, and Saturday, Dec. 8, if weather permits.

All of the girders are manufactured locally and hauled to construction sites overnight, when traffic is lighter.

Thus far, more than 600 girders have been installed on 40 bridge structures throughout the South Mountain Freeway corridor.

With girders in place at 32nd Street and Broadway Road, crews will finish pouring concrete decks and add barrier walls on the bridges.

Last month, ADOT announced plans to add a South Mountain Freeway interchange at 32nd Street following an environmental study stemming from stakeholder input. The connecting ramps at the 32nd Street interchange will be completed after the South Mountain Freeway opens.

The 22-mile South Mountain Freeway, which is scheduled to open as early as late 2019, will provide a long-planned direct link between the East Valley and West Valley and a much-needed alternative to Interstate 10 through downtown Phoenix. Approved by Maricopa County voters in 1985 and again in 2004 as part of a comprehensive regional transportation plan, it will complete the Loop 202 and Loop 101 freeway system.

You can stay informed about the South Mountain Freeway project and sign up for updates and weekly traffic alerts at SouthMountainFreeway.com.

PHOENIX ‒ Replacing the Ajo Way bridge (State Route 86) over the Santa Cruz River as part of a project to improve Ajo Way west of Interstate 19 will mean closing the bicycle path under the bridge until the new bridge is in place.

The path will close on Tuesday evening, Oct. 30, and is expected to remain closed until December 2019.

Arizona Department of Transportation crews have been working since summer on utility improvements, including water and sewer lines, that are part of the second phase of the project. The second phase also includes widening Ajo Way between I-19 and Holiday Boulevard, replacing the pedestrian bridge at Michigan Street and building a braided ramp that connects Ajo Way with I-19 separately from I-19 traffic exiting at Irvington Road.

The $32 million project is scheduled for completion in January 2020. The Pima Association of Governments, the regional transportation-planning agency, is contributing about $6 million toward the cost.

Improvements during the $54 million first phase included a wider Ajo Way bridge over I-19, new ramps and new interchange design with a single set of signals controlling traffic flow. Other improvements included a wider Irvington Road exit lane, noise walls from Ajo Way south to Irvington Road, a wider Ajo Way east of I-19, a repaved Elizabeth Drive and a reconstructed Lamar Avenue.

PHOENIX – The Arizona Department of Transportation’s original plan for improving the Interstate 17 bridges at Willard Springs Road south of Flagstaff called for replacing the decks in both directions over two summers, ending well into 2019. The project that’s underway, however, is replacing the bridges in their entirety by the end of November – at no additional cost.

The difference is thanks to a process called value engineering.

Once a project has been awarded, ADOT and contractors can use value engineering to systematically analyze the plans and identify ways to deliver improvements safely, reliably and efficiently for the lowest overall cost possible, looking for ways to improve quality and value while reducing time needed to complete the work.  For ADOT to approve a contractor’s value engineering proposal, the change must either reduce cost or delivery time or both while adding value.

As an alternative to removing and replacing just the bridge decks at I-17 and Willard Springs Road, the contractor, Fisher Industries, proposed creating new bridge abutments as well by using giant steel plates attached to construction vehicles as molds around rebar cages. Once the concrete sets, the steel plates can be moved quickly, allowing crews to pour concrete for another part of the abutment.

Building abutments normally takes weeks. With this technique, being used for the first time on an ADOT project, it took only days for crews to create abutments for the I-17 bridges at Willard Springs Road.

“Once the abutments are built, the bridge work is the same that we’ve always done,” said Steve Monroe, senior resident engineer for ADOT’s North Central District. “It’s nice to have the contractor get in, get the job done in a much more efficient way and get out.”

The new bridges are expected to be ready prior to the long Thanksgiving weekend. For now, drivers are moving by the work zone along I-17 using two lanes. Willard Springs Road is closed under I-17 while work is occurring, but drivers who need to access Willard Springs can still do so use using the southbound lanes of I-17.

In addition to improving delivery time and value, having both bridges done in one season rather than two reduces the length of time drivers must deal with restrictions at Willard Springs Road.

The bridge improvements are part of a larger project to improve northbound I-17 from milepost 312 north to the Flagstaff area. Several miles of the interstate have been repaved along with new guardrail. Both the right and left lanes from milepost 312 to 315 have been completely rebuilt and are already being used by traffic.

In the final weeks before the weather turns too cold for paving, crews will focus on completing paving of both lanes between mileposts 312 and 316 and the right lane up to milepost 331 at Kelly Canyon Road. After a winter hiatus, crews will return when the weather warms to finish the project.

A major step forward this weekend for construction of a Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway interchange in the West Valley will require a westbound closure of Interstate 10 followed by an eastbound closure, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Crews with Connect 202 Partners, the developer of the South Mountain Freeway, will be pouring concrete above I-10 travel lanes to create the deck of a 1,565-foot flyover ramp that will eventually connect to I-10.

Westbound I-10 will be closed between 51st and 67th avenues from 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, to 4 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. Eastbound I-10 will then close between 67th and 51st avenues from 4 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, to 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28, well before the end of the Arizona Cardinals’ game against the San Francisco 49ers (1:25 p.m. kickoff).

During the westbound closure, traffic exiting at 51st Avenue can detour to the westbound I-10 access road, as well as Van Buren Street or McDowell Road, before re-entering I-10 at 67th Avenue. In addition, the westbound I-10 on-ramps at 27th, 35th and 43rd avenues will be closed to help reduce traffic backups.

During the eastbound closure, traffic exiting at 67th Avenue can detour to Van Buren Street or McDowell Road, before re-entering I-10 at 51st Avenue (the eastbound I-10 access road from 67th and 51st avenues is closed during this work). In addition, the eastbound I-10 on-ramps at 91st, 83rd and 75th avenues will be closed to help reduce traffic backups.

To avoid delays on I-10, motorists should consider alternate routes, including the Loop 101 (Agua Fria Freeway) west of Interstate 17, or exiting I-10 sooner and taking local streets to re-enter past the closure point.

Motorists should also be aware that 59th Avenue will also be closed in both directions between I-10 and Roosevelt Street from 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, to 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28.

During the closures, crews will pump approximately 730 cubic yards of concrete, enough to fill more than 60 dump trucks, into the steel-reinforced deck on the flyover ramp, the longest of five ramps that will be part of the interchange.

Once the concrete is poured, a self-propelled concrete leveling machine called a bidwell will spread the concrete to ensure a flat surface throughout. After the concrete has had an opportunity to cure and reach maximum strength, construction vehicles can travel on the ramp.

The 22-mile South Mountain Freeway, expected to open as early as late 2019, will provide a long-planned direct link between the East Valley and West Valley and a much-needed alternative to I-10 through downtown Phoenix. Approved by Maricopa County voters in 1985 and again in 2004 as part of a comprehensive regional transportation plan, the South Mountain Freeway will complete the Loop 202 and Loop 101 freeway system in the Valley.

ADOT works to inform the public about planned highway restrictions, but there is a possibility that unscheduled closures or restrictions may occur. Weather can also affect a project schedule. To stay up to date with the latest highway conditions around the state, visit ADOT’s Arizona Traveler Information site at az511.gov or call 511.

PHOENIX ‒ A six-month project to replace the deck of the bridge over Interstate 10 at Pinal Air Park Road will begin in early November.

Preliminary work on the $1.85 million project will begin Wednesday, Oct. 24. The bridge will close in early November and remain closed for about four months, temporarily shutting down direct access to and from westbound I-10.

In addition to replacing the deck on the bridge, which was built in 1963, Arizona Department of Transportation crews will repair girders under the bridge.

Drivers on westbound I-10 who want to exit at Pinal Air Park Road (exit 232) should continue north to the Red Rock exit (exit 226), then take eastbound I-10 to Pinal Air Park Road. There will be no restrictions on ramps to and from eastbound I-10.

Drivers on Pinal Air Park Road who want to use westbound I-10 will need to take eastbound I-10 to Marana Road (exit 236).

I-10 will be reduced to two lanes in each direction under the bridge during much of the work.

PHOENIX – An Arizona Department of Transportation project that’s rebuilding 5 miles of Interstate 40 near Williams has been ranked in the nation’s top 10 by Roads & Bridges, a construction industry publication.

The many freeze-thaw cycles seen annually in this area, combined with heavy snow, snowplowing and use by a large number of commercial vehicles, had stressed pavement considerably between Williams and Devil Dog Road.

A $34 million project completely removed the existing eastbound roadway and replaced the surface with new concrete pavement, and crews are nearly done with work overlaying the westbound roadway with new concrete pavement.

“We were patching potholes after every winter storm,” said Chad Auker, assistant district engineer for ADOT’s North Central District. “It was a big maintenance issue.”

To accelerate much-needed improvements, ADOT and Gannett Fleming, the design firm for the project, completed design work, which normally takes about a year, in less than three months. And construction has moved rapidly in part because crews are incorporating Portland Cement Concrete Pavement recycled from this stretch.

Using Portland Cement Concrete Pavement as the road surface increases pavement life by up to 60 percent and outlasts asphalt overlays by at least 10 years.

Gannett Fleming made the nomination to Roads & Bridges because of the project’s innovative and sustainable approach. Handling the construction is Fann Contracting Inc.

“It’s much-deserved,” Auker said. “The whole team, from the designers to the development team to the contractor and ADOT construction staff, worked hard. There were a lot of long days and long weeks, and the award is well-deserved for bringing new pavement to the road.”

The reconstruction between Williams and Devil Dog Road is among projects improving 34 miles of I-40 west Flagstaff. Crews also are improving 28 miles of northbound Interstate 17 just south of Flagstaff and reconstructing I-40 bridge decks at the interchange with I-17 in Flagstaff.