Engineering

From the Director: Recognizing the important work of engineers

From the Director: Recognizing the important work of engineers

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From the Director: Recognizing the important work of engineers

From the Director: Recognizing the important work of engineers

By John Halikowski / ADOT Director
February 18, 2020

It has been said that engineers solve problems you didn’t know you had in ways you don’t understand.

At the Arizona Department of Transportation, our engineers do work that is technical and often complicated, and we depend on them to solve problems every single day. More importantly, our ADOT engineers play a big role in getting everyone safely home, our True North. Their expertise and problem-solving abilities help us to achieve our Mission, “Connecting Arizona.  Everyone. Everywhere. Every Day.” and our Vision, “Moving Arizona. Becoming the safest, most reliable transportation system in the nation.”

Of course, “engineer” isn’t a one-size-fits-all label at ADOT. We have engineers who design our safe and reliable highways. We have engineers who test and analyze the soil we build on, giving us a safe, solid foundation. We have engineers who work on systems that keep traffic moving safely and efficiently. We even have engineers-in-training, who get training and experience in building safe roads.

Every ADOT employee plays a role in fulfilling our agency’s True North, Mission and Vision but this week, I want to give a special shout out to our engineers in recognition of National Engineers Week.

Started by the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1951, the week is celebrated every year to bring attention to the contributions of engineers while emphasizing the importance of math, science and technical skills.

This week, I encourage you to check out our ADOT Blog where we are featuring posts that showcase the engineers of ADOT and the work they perform.  I know you will appreciate the important work they do and are indeed worthy of the recognition.

Throwback Thursday: The Arizona Highway Department’s first female engineer

Throwback Thursday: The Arizona Highway Department’s first female engineer

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Throwback Thursday: The Arizona Highway Department’s first female engineer

Throwback Thursday: The Arizona Highway Department’s first female engineer

May 30, 2019

By Angela De Welles / ADOT Communications

Even though it happened more than six decades ago, Frances Walker can still recall her introduction to the Arizona Highway Department.

It was 1956 and she was preparing to graduate from the University of Arizona with a civil engineering degree when a supervisor from the Highway Department’s new Engineer-in-Training program gave a presentation to the college’s American Society of Civil Engineers student chapter.

Walker was there and liked what she heard.  She asked for an application only to be told that the Engineer-in-Training program was “designed for men.” She remembers the program supervisor saying he didn’t think the State Highway Commission would hire a woman engineer.

She decided to apply anyway.

“I was very interested in the EIT program,” said Walker, adding that because she was a student at UofA, a school supported by Arizonans, she felt like she owed something back to the state and wanted to work for the Arizona Highway Department.

So, it’s a good thing the supervisor was wrong.

Walker doesn’t know how it happened – she imagines that maybe one of the highway commissioners had a daughter – but she was accepted into the program, becoming the first woman ever employed by the Arizona Highway Department as an engineer.

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For the next 22 years, she continued working for the department. By the time she left in 1978, the Arizona Highway Department had become ADOT, and Walker was the agency’s design engineer for the District 2 Design Section, which at the time was part of the Tucson District Engineer's office. According to Walker, her duties included “designing highways and supervising the fellows.”

Today, Walker lives in Tucson and is very active in the community, volunteering her time to many causes. Just last year, she was inducted into the University of Arizona’s Engineering Hall of Fame, an honor that she says came as a surprise.

Looking back, Walker has fond memories of her years working for the state and remembers the numerous projects she helped design in southern Arizona, including State Route 77.

Walker earned several honors throughout her career, including being named “Engineer of the Year” in 1973 by the southern chapter of the Arizona Society of Professional Engineers. She was the first woman to receive the award. When it comes to her profession, she recalls some of the technology that was available during her early days at the department.

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“It’s much easier now with computers because you have programs to figure (calculations) out for you,” she said.

Back then, the engineers worked with large mechanical calculators. But the calculators couldn’t do it all – there was a big book of trigonometry tables that always needed to be referred to, Walker remembers. Eventually, the office did get a computer, though it was the size of a large desk, Walker said.

Technology isn’t the only thing that’s changed since 1956. Society and the engineering profession have evolved, and Walker is happy to see so many women in the engineering field today.

She said she enjoys driving over the highways that helped to design and reminisces about her years at the Arizona Highway Department/ADOT.

“I think we just had a very good group of people in those days,” Walker said.

Retiring ADOT engineer leaves big legacy of 'little things'

Retiring ADOT engineer leaves big legacy of 'little things'

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Retiring ADOT engineer leaves big legacy of 'little things'

Retiring ADOT engineer leaves big legacy of 'little things'

May 7, 2019

By Laurie Merrill / ADOT Communications

Years before Kee Yazzie joined the Arizona Department of Transportation as a civil engineer in 1987, he was a sports star at his Kayenta high school who excelled in cross-country.

“I wasn’t fast, just consistent,” Yazzie said of his running, which earned him a college scholarship.

The same can be said of Yazzie’s work ethic, honed over 27 years with ADOT. Yazzie, who retired April 26 from his post as transportation engineering specialist in ADOT's Northeast District, gained a reputation as a meticulous, conscientious professional.

“If you gave him an assignment, he would get it done,” said David Sikes, a retired ADOT district engineer who worked with Yazzie for about 15 years. “He was an excellent engineer.”

Yazzie, who speaks Navajo, was also respected for acting as liaison between ADOT and Native American communities regarding transportation projects in the district.

“Most of the projects that we have on the reservation usually required consultation with the Navajo and the Hopi,” Yazzie said.  “Every project had to be approved by the Navajo and Bureau of Indian Affairs.”

One particularly complex project was the three-phase construction of a State Route 264 segment that included two new bridges and a roundabout in Burnside.

“They don’t have a name in Navajo for roundabout, so I told them it’s called ‘that’s the one you go around,’” he said. “I made a name for them.”

Yazzie is proud of the “little things we added to the projects.” He worked closely with Native Americans to develop changes in road designs that allowed for such improvements as bus pullouts, turnouts, additional paving and more.

Raised with six siblings in Black Mesa near Kayenta, Yazzie was the first of his family to attend college. He graduated from Northern Arizona University in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering.

He and his wife, Shirley, have three sons: Aaron, Evan and Jared. Aaron, who graduated from Stanford University and now works as a engineer for the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said he couldn’t be any prouder of his father.

“His journey to becoming a civil engineer is a story that should be told,” Aaron said.

At Monument Valley High School, he was an outstanding scholar and athlete who played football, joined the wrestling team and ran track and field as well as cross-country, Aaron said.

Yazzie graduated a year early with an athletic scholarship to Southern Utah University, where he attained a pre-engineering associate degree before attending NAU.

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“Having gone through engineering studies myself, I am completely impressed with the journey he chose with so little support,” Aaron said. “It was inspirational, during his retirement party, to hear his co-workers talk about his impact, especially for the Navajo communities serviced by ADOT.”

ADOT recruited Yazzie during an NAU job fair for its Engineer in Training program. Yazzie worked at several locations but spent most of his career was in Holbrook.

He worked for ADOT twice, leaving in 1996 to spend five years as a BIA supervisory highway engineer. He rejoined in 2001 and stayed another 18 years.

“The Navajo Nation is always saying, ‘Go to school and come back and help your people.’ They gave me a scholarship, I went, I got my education, I worked eight years and decided it’s time to go back to the Navajo Nation,” he said.

Randy Routhier, an ADOT senior resident engineer on construction projects who met Yazzie in 1994, said the agency was keen to rehire Yazzie because he brought so much ability to communicate and coordinate.

“He had inside information that appealed to the designer,” Routhier said of his long-time friend. “He had a lot of history in the Holbrook area. And he was regimented as far as reviewing plans. He was regimented as far as getting plans in and comments in on time.”

Though retired from ADOT, Yazzie doesn’t plan to completely hang up his hat. He said he plans to do highway construction consulting.

But he leaves behind a trail of good memories for colleagues like Routhier.

“We got very close,” Routhier said. “It was a joy working with him.”

And to his son, Aaron, Yazzie is a hero.

“Kee Yazzie is my inspiration,” he said. “He, quite literally, paved the road to my career at NASA. I am a very proud son.”

Students get hands-on look at science behind highways

Students get hands-on look at science behind highways

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Students get hands-on look at science behind highways

Students get hands-on look at science behind highways

May 4, 2019

By Lori Baker / ADOT Communications

Touring an ADOT Materials Lab, students from Copper King Elementary School in Phoenix learned how math and science skills taught in the classroom are used to build roads and other infrastructure.

More than 50 seventh- and eighth-graders from Copper King’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) Academy took turns touring different sections of the Phoenix lab and participating in hands-on activities. They viewed pavement management, mix design, binder and asphalt, structures and the annex where testing equipment is calibrated. They touched materials and learned about engineering overall. They also got a close-up look of the equipment trucks that pavement management uses.

“This was a unique experience to show students how important the skills and knowledge they learn in school through their math, science and technology work are in many professions,” said Allan DeOrnellas, Copper King Elementary STEAM Academy teacher.

“The tour helped demonstrate the importance of being precise with their work and that improvements are being made every day in many aspects of our lives that we do not see,” he added.

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Copper King eighth-grader Sebastien Peterson, son of an ADOT employee, helped organize the tour as part of his Chief Science Officer program.

One of his favorite activities was feeling the vibrations from “Thumper,” a falling weight deflectometer that engineers use to test the strength of the soil where roads are constructed.

Also popular was performing science experiments like creating gooey asphalt, and breaking concrete cylinders and steel rebar.

“The kids were really engaged and inquisitive,’’ said ADOT Assistant State Materials Engineer Paul Burch.

The material labs tour was a follow-up activity after Deputy Director for Transportation/State Engineer Dallas Hammit met last fall with STEAM Academy students to explain how ADOT builds and maintains Arizona’s transportation system.

Burch and ADOT Assistant State Construction Engineer Jesús A. Sandoval-Gil said the materials lab welcomes other school tours.

Engineer-in-Training Program participants grow with ADOT

Engineer-in-Training Program participants grow with ADOT

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Engineer-in-Training Program participants grow with ADOT

Engineer-in-Training Program participants grow with ADOT

February 20, 2019

By Laurie Merrill / ADOT Communications

 

Yudi Lei has always been fascinated by transportation and has a knack for math and science. Plus, she likes to tinker.

"I like to fix stuff, like my bicycle," said Lei, who was born and raised in China and graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s in civil engineering from a Chinese university.

After earning her master’s in transportation engineering from Arizona State University, Lei’s next step was only natural: joining the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Engineer-in-Training Program.

She decided to become an engineer to combine her loves of travel and drawing.

“I design in the office and I travel myself,” she said.

Now in her second year with the Engineer-in-Training Program, Lei has found a niche working on intelligent traffic design and traffic data prediction.

“I want to be involved in the future of transportation,” Lei said. “All the devices ADOT is working on are devices for the future.”

When Joselyn Valero started her engineering career with the ADOT, she was sure she wanted to concentrate on bridge design. But her path changed after rotating through multiple areas of study during the two-year Engineer-in-Training Program.

Valero discovered her true passion elsewhere within the Infrastructure Delivery and Operations Division.

“We inspect and supervise construction projects,” said Valero, who was hired as a full-time employee in 2017 in the department’s Casa Grande office. “We make sure everything is built according to all the ADOT specifications, all the ADOT rules and all the ADOT plans.”

Valero first joined ADOT in 2013 as an intern after earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in construction engineering from Arizona State University.

“I love ADOT and really hope to make a leadership career here,” Valero said.

Both women are products of the Engineer-in-Training program, an apprentice-style education that provides hands-on experience and side-by-side mentoring to graduates with civil engineering, technology or construction management degrees.

Joselyn Valero, ADOT Development Engineer

“I am super-excited about this program,” said Candee Samora, Engineer-in-Training and Intern Program manager. “These young adults come in and they have so many tools already along with their fundamentals of engineering. They are motivated and amazing.”

Each has an individually developed two-year schedule in the Engineer-in-Training Program that allows the participant to choose from a variety of disciplines for rotations that last from one to six months. These include such areas as project management, roadway design, environmental planning, multimodal planning and materials lab, among others.

There are currently 10 participants in the Engineer-in-Training Program, Samora said. Each has entered the department with the fundamentals of engineering portion of the professional examination complete. ADOT offers help in attaining the next major milestone: the rank of professional engineer.

Trainees often shine in leadership roles, Samora said. It's an entry-level training program that provides a foot in ADOT's door, providing a win-win for participants and the agency.

One such alumnus, Rob Samour, ADOT’s senior deputy state engineer for major projects, credits the Engineer-in-Training program with helping get him where he is today.

“The EIT program was a good introduction to my career in civil engineering, and it showed me the great things that (ADOT) does on a daily basis,” Samour said in a testimonial for the program.

Resident Engineer Adam Brahm, who oversees the Salt River segment of South Mountain Freeway construction, is among those who heap praise on the experience.

“School can supply you with the pool of knowledge for becoming an engineer, but you need a platform from which to leap into the profession,” Brahm said in his testimonial. “ADOT’s EIT program has provided me many platforms from which to dive into different facets of engineering.”

But it’s the people that make working at ADOT so enjoyable, Lei and Valero said.

“Every time I ask anyone anything I don’t know, they make themselves available,” Lei said. “They are willing to train people. That’s really impressive.”

Said Valero: “The people are amazing.”

Value engineering saves time, reduces motorist inconvenience on I-17 improvement

Value engineering saves time, reduces motorist inconvenience on I-17 improvement

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Value engineering saves time, reduces motorist inconvenience on I-17 improvement

Value engineering saves time, reduces motorist inconvenience on I-17 improvement

November 7, 2018

By David Woodfill / ADOT Communications

Value engineering, a process used by ADOT and its contractors, is designed to speed up construction, reduce costs when possible and deliver superior final results.

We recently told you about a bridge-improvement project on Interstate 17 south of Flagstaff that has a larger scope – new bridges at Willard Springs Road rather than new bridge decks – without adding to the cost. This expanded improvement also is being delivered during just one warm season rather than the two in our original plans.

That's thanks to value engineering used our contractor, which suggested using a novel technique that creates new bridge abutments in days rather than weeks, in coordination with ADOT engineers.

Want to learn more? Check out a cool video showing this project and the role of value engineering.

From the Archives: Engineer-In-Training program

From the Archives: Engineer-In-Training program

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From the Archives: Engineer-In-Training program

From the Archives: Engineer-In-Training program

March 9, 2018

NewsBeat, 1986

By Angela DeWelles / ADOT Communications

In 1956, engineers from the Arizona Highway Department were using big calculators to make huge progress on the state’s transportation system. When this photograph was taken, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had only just recently signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 into law and road construction projects were about to kick off at a record pace across the country.

But the era it’s from isn’t the only thing that makes this picture notable.

The woman and men shown were early participants in the department’s Engineer-in-Training program. The illustrious class included Walter Owen Ford, who ended up serving as ADOT’s state engineer from 1985 to1988, and Frances Walker, the first female engineer employed by the Arizona Highway Department.

Here’s what was written about Walker on June 19, 1956, in the Highway Spotlight, a publication billed as the “official news bulletin of the Arizona Highway Department.”

“On June 25th, a young Arizona girl who received her Bachelor of Science and Civil Engineering degrees from the University of Arizona at Tucson on May 29th will have the distinction of becoming the first woman ever employed by the Arizona State Highway Department as an Engineer."

“Mrs. Frances Sprawls Walker, 25, will enter on duty next Monday under the Engineer-in-Training program. Wm. N Price, Traffic Civil Engineer, who is supervisor of the program, said that Mrs. Walker’s first training assignment with the State Highway Department will be in the Construction Field Office at Phoenix."

“The Engineer-in-Training Program recently organized at the Highway Department for development of young graduate engineers, extends over a two year period. During this time, the trainees serve various periods of time in the nine divisions of the Engineering Department to receive diversified experience in all phases of highway construction.”

Today, the Engineer-in-Training program is still going strong. The two-year program offers new engineers the opportunity to gain practical training and hands-on experience. Many men and women got their start in the field through the EIT program, including ADOT’s first female state engineer, Jennifer Toth.

Find program details on the ADOT website.

It’s safe to say things have changed since 1912 when the Arizona Highway Department was first established. But you don’t just have to take our word … we’ve got plenty of pictures to prove it. We combed through our archives and decided to periodically post these photos from the past in a blog series we’re calling, “From the ADOT Archives.”

Engineers find creative solutions to transportation challenges

Engineers find creative solutions to transportation challenges

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Engineers find creative solutions to transportation challenges

Engineers find creative solutions to transportation challenges

February 22, 2018

Deck Pour

EDITOR'S NOTE: During National Engineers Week, which calls attention to the importance of engineering and career opportunities in engineering, blog posts are featuring different aspects of engineering at ADOT.

 

By Caroline Carpenter / ADOT Communications

ADOT engineers design and execute projects, ensure the quality of materials used in pavement, rebar, concrete and more, protect Arizona's $20 billion-plus investment in state highways through preventive maintenance, plan for traffic needs and perform other tasks critical to offering a reliable transportation system.

These creative women and men constantly come up with ingenious ways to meet challenges. On this Thursday of National Engineers Week, let's throw back to some of the engineering innovations we've featured of late.

 


Foam Injection

To fix a slight dip in the pavement on the Loop 101 Pima Freeway, ADOT engineers decided to use a product that injects foam beneath pavement and avoids having to tear up road surface. Deep foam injection stabilizes the soil, is cost-effective and takes much less time than a more involved project. The video below explains this technique and its benefits.

 

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Straddle Bent Work

 

Straddle Bents

If you've driven past Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway interchange construction in the West Valley, you've seen straddle bents constructed over Interstate 10 near 59th Avenue. These structures will eventually support flyover ramps. The straddle bent, which straddles lanes of traffic, is an alternative when a typical one-column pier carrying a ramp would need to be in the middle of an existing roadway. This Flickr slideshow has more photos of straddle bents and other highlights from our interchange construction project. And here's an Art of Transportation blog post celebrating the straddle bent.

 

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Temp bridge 87

 

Temporary bridges

Did you hear about the new bridge you'll never drive? Engineers are using a temporary bridge to reduce traffic impacts as we build a new I-10 interchange with State Route 87 near Picacho. This bridge will only be used by construction vehicles working on the project and will save about 60,000 trips from a materials pit to the work site because it's built to handle large loads. Engineers used a similar idea during a project that upgraded I-10 bridges at Craycroft Road in Tucson, with a temporary bridge maintaining traffic flow and reducing delays.

 

 

Prefab bridge

In March 2017, a novel construction technique using prefabricated components allowed ADOT to build a bridge in 96 hours, greatly reducing the traffic impacts from such a large project. Over a long weekend, a 110-foot bridge went up over the Sacramento Wash along Oatman Highway a mile north of Interstate 40 in northwestern Arizona. The video below offers an accelerated look at this accelerated project.

What goes into a highway? A bridge? Ask a materials engineer

What goes into a highway? A bridge? Ask a materials engineer

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What goes into a highway? A bridge? Ask a materials engineer

What goes into a highway? A bridge? Ask a materials engineer

February 22, 2018

EDITOR'S NOTE: During National Engineers Week, which calls attention to the importance of engineering and career opportunities in engineering, blog posts are featuring different aspects of engineering at ADOT.

By Steve Elliott / ADOT Communications

To explain her role as an ADOT materials engineer, Julie Kliewer suggests thinking about the parts and pieces that go into anything.

“Your house, the sidewalk, the road you drive on every day – it’s all engineered, and it’s all made up of materials,” she says.

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As ADOT’s State Construction and Materials Engineer, Kliewer leads a group whose duties include ensuring that quality materials go into roadways, bridges and other parts of Arizona’s highway system. The materials laboratories she directs evaluate everything from the rocks (also known as aggregate) used in asphaltic concrete to the reflective beads used in paints that stripe roadways to the bolts that help hold bridges together to the metal in sign posts.

The photo at right shows a Universal Hydraulic Testing Machine, which the Structural Materials Team uses to evaluate rebar.

While some ADOT engineers focus on design, others on construction and others on maintenance, materials engineers are involved in each of those phases, Kliewer notes.

In the design phase for a new highway, for example, that includes understanding the makeup of the earth beneath the roadway and the pavement that should be put on top of it. During construction, materials engineers make sure the mix of raw materials used in pavement is designed and delivered properly for that area’s conditions, including the temperatures. Later, materials engineers test how the pavement is performing and make sure materials used to maintain it meet specifications.

Kliewer, shown in the photo at top leading aspiring engineers on a project tour, has a Ph.D. from Oregon State University in civil engineering with a specialty in materials, along with minors in geotechnical engineering and numerical methods. The title of her dissertation explains why she’s often referred to around ADOT as having a “Ph.D. in pavement”: Development of Performance-based Test Procedures for Asphalt Mixtures.

While working with pavement is just one of the duties handled by ADOT materials engineers, it's among the most visible to the public, as ADOT's main asset is the thousands of miles of road surface in the state highway system.

If you want a challenge as an engineer with an interest in materials and pavement, try working in a state with many highways exposed to relentless heat and sun and others at high altitudes seeing dozens of freezes and thaws throughout the winter, along with snow and snowplowing.

For materials engineers dealing with pavement, one challenge is writing specifications that get the right pavement mix and good quality for a given area.

“It’s not a matter of just throwing some aggregate and asphalt together,” she says. “It’s a balancing act.”

In asphaltic concrete, asphalt holds together the aggregate that supports the load. One of the things materials engineers look for in a mix is voids, or airspace. If there are too many voids, the pavement won’t last as long as it should. If there aren’t enough voids, it won’t be as stable as it could be. The photo at right shows a Hamburg Wheel Tracker, which ADOT's Pavement Materials Testing group uses it to evaluate asphalt mixes.

In addition to designing the best pavement mix for a given location, ADOT materials engineers test how the road surface will oxidize and growing stiffer over time. That stiffening, accentuated by Arizona’s dry climate and abundant sunshine, contributes to cracks that are addressed with substances evaluated by ADOT’s materials engineers.

Kliewer’s path to materials engineering began in high school, when she couldn’t decide whether to be an engineer or a forester. She was able to do both at Oregon State University, earning bachelor’s degrees in forest engineering and civil engineering but finding that materials classes struck her fancy.

“It just fit me,” she says.

After two years with the Oregon Department of Transportation, working mostly in materials research, she returned to Oregon State University to teach surveying and geotechnical engineering in the College of Forestry. While teaching, she earned a master’s in forest engineering and her doctorate in civil engineering.

The reward of materials engineering, Kliewer says, is figuring out how things fit together, whether it’s in pavement, bridge girders, concrete culverts or anything else making up the highway system.

“If you like solving those kinds of puzzles, it’s a really rewarding career,” she says.

Getting all green lights? Thank a traffic engineer

Getting all green lights? Thank a traffic engineer

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Getting all green lights? Thank a traffic engineer

Getting all green lights? Thank a traffic engineer

February 21, 2018

Traffic

EDITOR'S NOTE: During National Engineers Week, which calls attention to the importance of engineering and career opportunities in engineering, blog posts are featuring different aspects of engineering at ADOT.

By Tom Herrmann / ADOT Communications

Ever played Sim City? The game that has been amusing millions since 1989 lets you design a city from the buildings to the utilities to the roads. Perhaps the greatest challenge: keeping traffic flowing smoothly so workers and customers can get in and out of the city to keep the economy going.

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James Gomes

What you really need to succeed – in Sim City or in a real community like Pima County – is someone like James Gomes, traffic engineer for the Arizona Department of Transportation’s South Central District, based in Tucson.

One of the roles of a traffic engineer is keeping traffic moving as smoothly as possible in every direction. It’s not enough to keep traffic moving along Oracle Road (State Route 77, shown above) north of the Rillito River; he has to avoid changes that would hinder traffic flow on the east-west streets that cross Oracle. Another consideration: Traffic patterns are different during the morning rush than they are in the evening.

Traffic engineers can’t control everything, including new construction that affects traffic volumes. Whatever they do needs to be coordinated with other jurisdictions, such as the city of Tucson, Pima County and the Pima Association of Governments.

So how do traffic engineers in each of ADOT’s seven districts accomplish all of that?

“There is a long-standing process used to develop traffic signal timing plans and keep traffic moving,” Gomes said. “Typically we study the corridor, collect and analyze traffic counts, and then we develop timing plans using traffic software to simulate traffic flows based on the traffic volumes, speeds and signal spacing.”

On major streets like Oracle, the challenge of those green lights is even greater.

“There is a huge balancing act that is performed during signal synchronization. We could very well synchronize Oracle Road to get the most motorists through the corridor. But if we shift too much green time to the main thoroughfare, then the side streets would suffer a great deal of delay and drivers wouldn’t be happy about that.”

That’s just one part of the job. Traffic engineers manage street lighting and informational signs, determine the need for turn lanes and signals, conduct speed studies, analyze traffic impacts from new development and participate in planning future projects.

The future: greater technology. New networked signal cabinets along Oracle allow drivers to navigate 7 miles with just three stops for traffic signals. Given all the challenges involved in that, it’s a good result.