When it comes to the long-awaited Interstate 10 expansion between Chandler and Casa Grande, more money means more lanes. With that goal, the Arizona Department of Transportation has submitted a proposal to get additional federal dollars to combine with state funds for the project. 

ADOT has officially delivered a grant application through the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) for an added $300 million to supplement the $400 million state appropriation signed into law by Governor Doug Ducey earlier this month. That commitment of state dollars made ADOT eligible to apply for the federal competitive grant. There is also $290 million previously budgeted, for a potential project total of $990 million. Construction is funded in part by Prop. 400, a dedicated half-cent sales tax approved by Maricopa County voters in 2004. 

ADOT is collaborating closely with the Gila River Indian Community and Maricopa Association of Governments on the I-10 project, and the ADOT application has also gained the vital support of the Arizona congressional delegation, state legislators, and local and regional elected officials. Additionally, more than 50 letters of support have been received from multiple chambers of commerce, trade associations as well as large and small businesses. 

“This project is essential for Arizona to enhance the safety and traffic capacity of I-10 with the added benefit of positively impacting our economy,” said ADOT Director John Halikowski. “Interstate 10 is a Key Economic Corridor. Commercial traffic on I-10 carries significant numbers of products and commodities, many of which are manufactured or produced right here in Arizona. These critical items reach every corner of the United States and internationally.” 

Halikowski added, “ADOT will do everything possible to leverage financial resources to expand and improve these 26 miles of highway and associated infrastructure. Applying for these federal funds speaks loudly to our commitment to the vision of moving Arizona and becoming the safest, most reliable transportation system in the nation.”

The grant award announcement is expected sometime this fall. In the interim, an engineering and environmental study for the project is currently being completed in cooperation with the Gila River Indian Community and Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG). Additionally, a public hearing for the project is planned in late summer.

Following completion of required environmental review and clearance, the project is expected to start in 2023, beginning with expanding the bridges that carry traffic over the Gila River. Should the federal money not be awarded to the state, ADOT will have contingencies prepared to maximize the use of available dollars for lane expansion. 

Target completion date for the full project is sometime in 2026.

For more information: http://i10wildhorsepasscorridor.com/ 

PHOENIX – The Governor’s Office and the Arizona Department of Transportation today announced Arizona has won a highly competitive $90 million federal highway grant to help expand and improve Interstate 17 north of Phoenix, including a flex lanes system between Black Canyon City and the Sunset Point Rest Area.

The Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant, awarded to the Arizona Department of Transportation by the Federal Highway Administration, will be used as part of an estimated $320 million project to add lanes along 23 miles of I-17 between Anthem Way and Sunset Point. Construction is scheduled to begin by 2021 and be completed in 2023.

“This is exciting news for Arizona and our growing economy,” said Governor Ducey. “Arizona’s fiscally conservative, balanced budget made significant investments in our state’s infrastructure. This additional funding will expand Interstate 17 in a critical commerce corridor, helping reduce congestion, improve traffic flow and increase public safety. My thanks to the Arizona Department of Transportation and all of our regional and federal partners for their hard work and advocacy on behalf of Arizona.”

“This is great news for the entire state and in particular for those living in and traveling to northern Arizona,” ADOT Director John Halikowski said. “I thank all of ADOT’s partners at the local, regional and federal level, including members of our congressional delegation and the Maricopa Association of Governments, for helping us move this much-needed project forward.”

The improvements to I-17 north of Phoenix are one of the state’s transportation priorities because that area regularly experiences heavy congestion due to crashes, disabled vehicles and increased weekend traffic.

The state budget recently passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Doug Ducey included an investment of $130 million in state funds to allow full construction of third lanes along the highway between Anthem Way and Black Canyon City as part of the larger I-17 improvement project.

Meanwhile, flex lanes along 8 miles of I-17 north of Black Canyon City will operate as a separate two-lane facility to carry one direction of traffic at any one time depending on need, with movable gates at end to control access. For example, the flex lanes will carry heavier northbound I-17 traffic on a Friday and southbound traffic on a Sunday. They also could provide extra lanes in one direction if an incident closes the regular I-17 lanes in the area between Black Canyon City and Sunset Point.

“I-17 plays a key role in moving people and products in Arizona and national commerce between regional and international markets, including Mexico,” Halikowski said. “There are no reasonable alternative routes when traffic on I-17 is impacted. That’s why this is both a state and national priority.” 

Environmental studies for the I-17 corridor north of Phoenix are scheduled for completion later this year.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, this round of the Infrastructure Rebuilding America discretionary grant program is making available between $855 million and $902.5 million for projects that help rebuild America’s infrastructure.

PHOENIX – A $1 million federal grant will allow transportation agencies to better leverage data to help people get around more efficiently in Arizona’s Sun Corridor, the fast-growing region stretching from the Phoenix area through Tucson to the border with Mexico.

The Arizona Department of Transportation, the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) and partner agencies will use the Federal Highway Administration grant to create Sun Cloud, a transportation data portal intended to inform infrastructure investments and improve mobility and safety in the region.

MAG, the transportation-planning agency for the Phoenix region, will serve as project manager to create the cloud-based repository and online portal for data contributed by ADOT, the Pima Association of Governments, the Sun Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Sierra Vista Metropolitan Planning Organization.

The goal: helping leaders make transportation investments that improve safety and mobility on roadways as well as streamlining the process of completing federally required environmental reviews. 

“Having accessible, usable and high-quality data and analytical tools is vital to moving people and goods more efficiently in the Sun Corridor and helping Arizona’s economy compete globally,” said Greg Byres, who leads ADOT’s Multimodal Planning Division.

ADOT was among nine state departments of transportation that received a total of $8.4 million in Federal Highway Administration Accelerated Innovation Deployment (AID) Demonstration grants.

“Sun Cloud provides a vehicle for in-depth coordination across planning boundaries. It will help us look at the Sun Corridor as a whole to assess the collective impact of transportation projects and help us focus on specific strategies,” said MAG Chair Gail Barney, mayor of Queen Creek.                                               

Besides being a resource for transportation planning, the new online tool will be of value to businesses and members of the public. For example, instead of going to multiple agencies to seek information about a specific roadway, homeowners, university students, business owners and others will be able to easily access authoritative information in one place.

The data will involve traffic, socioeconomic and environmental details, crashes and project plans for Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties. It will be in formats that enable use in mobile applications.

PHOENIX – Grants from the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety will allow many Phoenix-area law enforcement officers and others called to testify in cases before the Arizona Department of Transportation’s administrative law judges to do so by video conferencing from locations in Mesa and Glendale.

Two grants totaling $50,000 will be used to expand an ADOT Executive Hearing Office video conferencing system already used in Flagstaff, Kingman, Prescott, Sierra Vista, Show Low, Tucson and Yuma.

Executive Hearing Office judges heard more than 7,700 administrative cases in 2017 in Phoenix courtrooms as well as through video conferencing with sites around Arizona. Many cases involve reinstatement of driver licenses suspended due to a DUI, medical review for reinstating driver licenses, motor carrier violations and fuel tax evasion.

For most cases from outside the Phoenix area, law enforcement officers and other parties are directed to report to a video conference site, though a party may request to appear in a courtroom at the ADOT Executive Hearing Office at 3838 N. Central Ave., just north of downtown Phoenix.

That process soon will apply to cases in which certain Phoenix-area parties will be directed to video conferencing sites to be established this summer at Motor Vehicle Division offices at 4121 E. Valley Auto Drive in Mesa and 16380 N. 59th Ave. in Glendale.

Getting to Executive Hearing Office courtrooms can require long trips and significant commitments of time for many law enforcement officers in the greater Phoenix area. Reducing that time can save tax dollars by reducing overtime costs in addition to reducing how long officers are away from their primary duties.

In gauging support for these new video conference sites, ADOT surveyed police chiefs and traffic officer supervisors from law enforcement agencies  in the East Valley and West Valley.

“ADOT’s goal is having every employee, everywhere, solving problems every day, and these grants from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety are helping us do just that for Valley law enforcement officers and other parties who currently face long trips to our courtrooms,” said Rick Rice, the chief administrative law judge who supervises Executive Hearing Office judges and staff.

“Operation of these remote sites will allow law enforcement officers to spend less time traveling to and from hearings to appear as witnesses and ensure that the officers can return to their duties within their jurisdictions sooner,’’ said Alberto Gutier, director of the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.

The Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety is the focal point for highway safety issues in Arizona. The cabinet agency provides leadership by developing, promoting and coordinating programs; influencing public and private policy; and increasing public awareness of highway safety.

For more information about the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, please visit gohs.az.gov.

For more information about ADOT, please visit azdot.gov.

PHOENIX – A $6 million federal grant will help the Arizona Department of Transportation and partner agencies advance the use of technology to help drivers steer clear of congestion on the 60-mile-long Loop 101 freeway in the Phoenix area.

The project will include development of a Decision Support System to provide Loop 101 drivers with real-time information, including best detour routes, when freeway slowing occurs due to crashes, disabled vehicles or other incidents.

ADOT teamed up with the Maricopa County Department of Transportation (MCDOT), several Valley cities, the University of Arizona and Arizona State University, plus Valley Metro to apply for the Federal Highway Administration grant as part of that agency’s Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment program.

“While ADOT and Maricopa County have already been national leaders in using freeway management technology, this project will allow us to take the next step to inform drivers about traffic conditions and alternate routes,” said ADOT Director John Halikowski. “Improving safety and incident response are also keys to managing congestion and are at the heart of this partnership.”

The federal grant will allow ADOT to work with Maricopa County and other partners on the design of the Loop 101 Mobility Project. Other technologies to be deployed include enhanced traffic signal timing to help move traffic on arterial streets and transit routes when the freeway is congested.

The development of a mobile app will improve data exchange between the regional transportation network and the travelers who use it. Transit vehicles also will be outfitted with connected vehicle technology to improve accessibility to destinations while helping people, including senior citizens, who depend on transit services.

“As Maricopa County grows, technology plays an increasingly important role in keeping people and products on the move,” MCDOT Director Jennifer Toth said. “This project will demonstrate how technology innovation can not only improve everyday driving but also improve how we manage congestion when our region hosts major events like the Super Bowl, the NCAA Final Four, Phoenix Open golf and Cactus League baseball.”

The Federal Highway Administration’s Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies program funds cutting-edge technologies that are ready to be deployed to enhance existing traffic capacity for commuters and businesses.

“Technology is the future of U.S. transportation,” said Acting Federal Highway Administrator Brandye L. Hendrickson. “Innovations like this one are the future of congestion management for America’s highway system and deserve this important recognition.”

ADOT and its partners also have identified $27 million in existing project funding that, when combined with the $6 million federal grant, will pay for designing and installing the Loop 101 Mobility Project within the next four years.

PHOENIX – Pilot projects using technology to make highway work zones safer and commercial vehicle inspections at the border more efficient will begin in early 2017 thanks to federal grants recently awarded to the Arizona Department of Transportation.

The Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks grants, totaling $581,000, are from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

“These projects will make our work zones safer and improve how efficiently we inspect trucks that bring billions of dollars in commercial goods into our state,” ADOT Director John Halikowski said. “It’s another way ADOT is making our highways Key Commerce Corridors that improve the quality of life in Arizona by moving products and people.”

A work zone notification system will use emerging vehicle communication technologies to alert commercial drivers that they are approaching construction or incidents on freeways, and also make them aware of variable speed limits, traffic congestion and lane closures.

While the primary goal is reducing crashes and injuries, the pilot project is also designed to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion in work zones.

It’s a joint project involving ADOT, the Maricopa County Department of Transportation and the University of Arizona. One work zone will be chosen on a highway managed by ADOT, while a second work zone will be on Maricopa County 85, which runs from the Agua Fria River in Avondale to State Route 85 near Buckeye.

The $337,000 project will begin in early 2017, with pilot demonstrations in place by August 2018.

The second project will connect separate technologies used by state and federal inspectors at the Mariposa Border Port of Entry in Nogales to allow officers with ADOT’s Enforcement and Compliance Division to make more-informed decisions about which commercial trucks to pull aside for expanded inspections.

Mariposa is Arizona’s busiest commercial port, processing the majority of the $30 billion in imports and exports that cross the Arizona-Mexico international border, including much of America’s winter produce.

Screenings by ADOT and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration officers are based primarily on visual inspections of trucks and documents presented to officers in Rapid Enforcement Lanes. The two agencies have separate computer systems with different information about trucks crossing the border. Some trucks cross several times in the same day.

This $224,000 project, expected to be completed by summer 2018, will build an interface that allows state and federal inspectors to share safety and credential information about trucks crossing into Arizona from Mexico. That will allow inspectors from both agencies to make inspection decisions based on more complete information on each truck, trailer, cargo and driver.

The shared information will be available by computer before a truck reaches the inspection booth. Combined with the truck’s weight and historical information from earlier border crossings, ADOT officers can make decisions quickly on whether to pull trucks aside for a closer look or allow them to continue north.

PHOENIX – Arizona is on track to receive a $54 million federal grant helping fund two key widening projects, and adding traffic-management technology that includes a dust storm detection and warning system, along Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson.

Members of Arizona’s congressional delegation have informed the Arizona Department of Transportation that the U.S. Department of Transportation has recommended awarding the FASTLANE grant under a program established by the 2015 FAST Act. This highly competitive program made $800 million in federal funds available to state departments of transportation.

Formal notification of FASTLANE grants is expected after a 60-day congressional review period.

“This is a major step forward as ADOT continually works to improve the I-10 corridor between Phoenix and Tucson,” ADOT Director John Halikowski said. “This corridor carries as many as 120,000 vehicles per day, and about 30 percent of those vehicles are trucks. It’s a highway that is vital to freight traffic and the need to keep Arizona competitive by accommodating daily business and travel needs.”

The anticipated award is for three projects on I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson:

• Realigning and widening four miles in the Picacho area to three lanes in each direction while reconstructing the interchange with State Route 87.
• Widening four miles between Interstate 8 and Earley Road to three lanes in each direction while upgrading ramps at Jimmie Kerr Boulevard near Casa Grande.
• Making technology enhancements to improve traffic management and safety, including remote sensors to provide early warning of approaching dust.

The total cost of the I-10 improvement projects is $157.5 million. ADOT will provide $103.5 million of that amount.

The U.S. Department of Transportation evaluated 212 applications from states requesting a total of $9.8 billion for transportation projects, more than 10 times the available funding.

The two I-10 widening projects in the FASTLANE grant are included in ADOT’s 2017-2021 Five-Year Transportation Facilities Construction Program, which the State Transportation Board adopted in June. These two projects were accelerated from ADOT’s six-to-10-year development program due to additional funding through the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act.

The 2017 budget signed by Governor Ducey included $30 million toward the I-10 widening projects, money that will be used as part of ADOT’s matching funds.

“We appreciate Governor Ducey and the members of the Arizona Legislature for supporting critical transportation projects in the state,” Halikowski said. “As one of Arizona’s Key Commerce Corridors, I-10 is an important route for travelers, commerce and international trade. This combination of state and federal funding will be a tremendous help to modernizing the highway.”

Once the two I-10 widening projects are complete, ADOT will have reached its goal of widening the entire stretch of I-10 between Casa Grande and Tucson to a six-lane divided highway.

PHOENIX ‒ Improving traffic flow and safety on Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson. Helping commerce move on a state route between the border and Interstate 19 in Nogales. Rehabilitating an 850-foot-long bridge along Interstate 15 in northwestern Arizona.

Aiming to move forward sooner on those goals, the Arizona Department of Transportation is seeking $109.5 million through two highly competitive federal grant programs.

With $800 million available through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s FASTLANE grant program, established under the 2015 FAST Act, ADOT has applied for $60 million and offered to provide $86.83 million in matching funds to be used in four ways along I-10 between the Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas:

• Realigning and widening four miles in the Picacho area to three lanes in each direction while reconstructing the interchange with State Route 87.
• Widening four miles between Earley Road and Interstate 8 to three lanes in each direction while upgrading ramps at Jimmie Kerr Boulevard near Casa Grande.
• Making technology enhancements to improve traffic management and safety, including remote sensors to provide early warning of approaching dust.
• Conducting preliminary engineering and completing an environmental analysis for widening 27 miles of I-10 to three lanes in each direction between the Loop 202 Santan Freeway and approximately SR 387 in Casa Grande. Any plan to widen I-10 through the Gila River Indian Community would require an agreement with the tribal government.

“The impact of Interstate 10 on Arizona’s citizens and economy is huge. Improvements to this vital link between Phoenix and Tucson are critical to our quality of life,” ADOT Director John Halikowski said. “Each element of the FASTLANE grant proposal will advance these efforts to continue improving I-10 and significantly benefit motorists and the flow of commerce.”

Meanwhile, ADOT has submitted Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant proposals for two projects:

• $25 million, with a proposed $39 million state match, to improve the 3.75-mile State Route 189 (Mariposa Road) in Nogales. Proposed upgrades to the route, which connects the Mariposa Port of Entry with Interstate 19 and Interstate Business 19/Grand Avenue, include a raised median and improving ramps connecting with I-19.
• $24.5 million, with a proposed $10.5 million state match, to rehabilitate Virgin River Bridge No. 1 on Interstate 15. Built in 1964 and located just east of Littlefield in the far northwestern corner of Arizona, the bridge has never undergone a major rehabilitation.

Both TIGER grant projects and the two I-10 construction projects in the FASTLANE grant are already part of ADOT’s plans, both through its current construction program and the Tentative Five-Year Transportation Facilities Construction Program that’s receiving public input and awaiting a vote by the State Transportation Board.

For Virgin River Bridge No. 1, $33 million in construction funding is programmed for fiscal 2019. For SR 189, ADOT has recommended $64 million in fiscal 2021 for construction. For the I-10 projects, ADOT has recommended $85 million in fiscal 2018 for the Picacho area and $40 million in fiscal 2019 for Earley Road to I-8.

Winning grants would allow these projects to move forward faster and enable ADOT to redirect money toward other pressing needs.

“There are no guarantees when it comes to competitive grants, but success pays big dividends for Arizona,” Halikowski said.

Since 2012, ADOT has received a total of $43.6 million through 15 competitive grants, most of them administered by U.S. DOT. Much of that amount comes from TIGER grants for a planned railroad overpass on State Route 347 in Maricopa and the ongoing reconstruction of Virgin River Bridge No. 6 on I-15.

There will be plenty of competition from other states for FASTLANE and TIGER grants. For fiscal 2015, when ADOT won a $15 million grant toward the SR 347 project, U.S. DOT received 627 eligible applications worth $10.1 billion for the $500 million available. About $500 million is available in the current round of TIGER grants.

U.S. DOT is expected to announce awards from both grant programs later this year.