By Tom Herrmann / ADOT Communications

If you stand at the east end of the Ina Road bridge over the Santa Cruz River in Marana, it looks like the bridge goes on forever.

That’s not quite true, but the bridge that should begin handling traffic by the end of the year is longer than most in Arizona. It’s 640 feet long – more than the length of two football fields – and longer than the longest home run in major league history (Babe Ruth hit one 575 feet back in 1921).

ADOT crews put girders in place for the new westbound bridge in mid-May. The structure is almost identical to one we built in 2017 that eventually will carry two lanes of eastbound traffic toward Interstate 10 about a half-mile away.

Here are more numbers when it comes to the Santa Cruz River bridges:

• With the help of a crane and some very strong ropes, we placed 54 girders to support the bridge.
• There are nine piers holding up those 54 girders.
• Six girders, running the same direction as the bridge, rest on each pier.
• Each girder weighs 45,000 pounds, or about 22.5 tons.
• Combined, that’s 2.43 million pounds – 1,215 tons – of girders ready to support the roadway that will cross the bridge.

The next big step: Pouring the deck and superstructure of the bridge later this year. That will involve pouring 946 cubic yards of cement. At 2 tons per cubic yard, we’ll be pouring, smoothing, curing and striping nearly 1,900 tons of concrete for this bridge alone.

Looking at the bridge from below reveals that the girders curve upward just a bit. That’s to allow each to drop down just a little when the deck is poured into place.

ADOT is overseeing a $128 million project creating a modern traffic interchange that includes a bridge carrying Ina Road traffic over Interstate 10. We're also widening the interstate and making Ina Road two lanes in each direction west of I-10. The project remains on track for completion in early 2019.

The town of Marana is contributing $7.9 million toward the cost of the Santa Cruz River bridges and the rest of the funding is from the Federal Highway Administration, the Pima Association of Governments and the Regional Transportation Authority.

By Laurie Merrill / ADOT Communications

This vintage photo shows construction of the final piece of Interstate 10 through a series of bridges near downtown Phoenix.

Snapped in 1989, the picture captures crews paving Central Avenue atop the Papago Freeway Tunnel, better known as the Deck Park Tunnel.

Today, the mighty half mile of I-10 carries hundreds of thousands of vehicles daily under Margaret T. Hance Park next to the Burton Barr Central Library.

Finished in 1990, it was celebrated as the last piece of freeway needed to complete the I-10 in its 2,500-mile entirety between Santa Monica, California, and Jacksonville, Florida.

The photographer who captured the paving also snapped a slice of Phoenix life. The picture, looking south near Portland Street, was taken in the same year that the elder George Bush was elected president, the Berlin Wall fell and NASA launched the Galileo spacecraft.

Residents arriving after this ADOT project may not recognize Central Avenue. There have been significant additions in the ensuing years, not the least of which is the Valley Metro light-rail line.

Many of today’s buildings, however, were present in 1989. Then as now, the Westward Ho building can be seen on the west side of Central – on the southern end of the picture – towering over its shorter neighbors.

The first building on the right, once the site of the Lexington Hotel, was built in the 1970s and now houses the artsy FOUND:RE Phoenix hotel at the corner of Central and Portland.

The tunnel has become such an integral part of Phoenix that it may surprise some to learn that it’s not really a tunnel. The freeway actually travels under 19 side-by-side bridges.

By Tom Herrmann / ADOT Communications

The last time you went to the gym, how much weight did you lift? More than 100 pounds? 200?

More than 75 tons, anyone?

Those building a new bridge connecting Interstate 10 and State Route 87 in Eloy didn’t really lift 20 tons, of course. But 30 feet above the ground today, as two cranes lifted huge girders into place, these professionals, securely perched atop bridge piers, made sure these 145-foot girders landed in just the right spot.

And they repeated the process over and over, as shown in the slideshow above.

Precision may be difficult with a heavy girder, but it’s essential. There needs to be the right number of girders across each pier to support the bridge deck and traffic over decades. And each girder must allow room for the one that will connect to the next pier.

Today marks six months since crews began clearing ground for new lanes of I-10 and the new interchange with SR 87. Placing girders on the bridge is another visible sign that work is continuing on schedule.

The project is creating six new lanes of I-10 that will connect with the existing freeway just west and a few miles east of SR 87. Traffic will be moved to the new pavement as soon as this fall, with the entire project scheduled for completion by fall 2019. After this project and another in Casa Grande are complete, I-10 will be three lanes in each direction all the way between Casa Grande and the east side of Tucson.

By Steve Elliott / ADOT Communications

It's a milestone day for ADOT's project widening several miles of I-10 between Picacho and Eloy. Crews are putting down the first pavement for new lanes being built east and north of the current I-10 alignment between mileposts 209 and 213.

Along with news outlets, Tom Herrmann from ADOT Communications was out at the crack of dawn to mark the occasion. You'll see some this work in his video and photos above, at right and below.

Crews had already started the paving process by putting down a base layer to carry these new lanes. Today, the area begins to look like the brand new freeway stretch coming by fall 2019.

Paving is expected to continue through the summer. The new lanes will connect to the existing freeway by the fall.

Why so much interest in this project? First, it's one of two going on in Pinal County that will make I-10 three lanes in each direction between Tucson and Casa Grande, continuing our efforts to improve the flow of personal and commercial traffic on this busy interstate. The other project, also scheduled for completion by fall 2019, is between Earley Road and I-8 in Casa Grande.

These follow other projects in recent years to widen I-10 between Tucson and Casa Grande.

Another reason for interest: After finishing these new lanes between Eloy and Picacho, our team will start on a first-of-its-kind dust-detection zone. This will include short- and long-range radar to identify dust storms that limit visibility. It also will install electronic message boards, variable speed limit signs and a closed-circuit camera network to alert drivers to potential hazards.

Also coming is a new interchange with SR 87. Drivers already can see the bridge supports for this structure rising just north of the current I-10 alignment.

The combined cost of the two projects, including the dust detection program, is about $157 million. About $54 million of that comes from a federal FASTLANE grant.

We'll keep you posted as both of these projects move forward and we move ever closer to completion and an even more valuable I-10.

By Tom Herrmann / ADOT Communications

Grubbing isn't a word you hear a lot these days.

There’s money-grubbing, power-grubbing. Just grubbing? Not so much.

Still, as work begins to add new lanes to Interstate 10 near Casa Grande, we’ll start the way we almost always start: grubbing.

It really just means removing the trees, shrubs and other desert plants to make room for new freeway lanes. The difference this time is that you’re likely to see us clearing the ground for the second project this year to widen I-10 in Pinal County.

The difference between this project and most others is that we’re widening I-10 to the inside rather than to the outside, using land in the median rather than the shoulders that run along the outside of the freeway.

We’ve chosen to work in the median this time because doing that will save the time and money that would be needed to acquire additional right of way for the freeway. We’ll also be adding a concrete median as a safety measure for drivers and rebuilding the bridge over Jimmie Kerr Boulevard to accommodate the additional freeway lanes.

One promise: I-10 will continue to have two lanes flowing in each direction as much as possible throughout the project, especially during the heaviest travel times. Any work that requires a lane restriction, even for a short distance, will take place at night.

This is the second project that will result in more travel lanes along I-10 in Pinal County. About 10 miles to the southeast, we’re widening a four-mile section of I-10 between Eloy and Picacho. That project also includes a new interchange with State Route 87 and an innovative dust detection area to give drivers the information they need to be safer in a dust storm.

We’re grubbing today, and in 18 months the result will be a six-lane freeway that will improve traffic flow and safety from Casa Grande to Tucson.