Today is the day.

On this date 79 years ago, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service bombed the surprised naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. One of the battleships sunk that day was the USS Arizona, which was irrepairably damaged when one of the bombs exploded in its magazine. The explosion caused the ship to go down with 1,177 souls still on board. It's the remains of the Arizona which you can still see today if you visit Pearl Harbor.

But you probably already knew that. After all the attack on Pearl Harbor drew the United States into the Second World War, and most can recite the rhetoric used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's in his speech to Congress the next day, where he declared December 7th, 1941 as "a date which will live in infamy."

However, maybe we can share some things you might not have known about the attack on Pearl Harbor. For instance, did you know Roosevelt's line in his speech was actually a last-minute change? As you can see in this draft of the speech, the line was a hand-written edit, replacing the still true, but softer "a date which will live in world history." 

Did you also know that you can catch a glimpse of the USS Arizona without leaving the state? If you visit Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza, directly east of the Capitol Building, you'll find a number of memorials to veterans, including Navajo Code Talkers and Vietnam veterans. And among these are one of the USS Arizona's two masts, a 14-inch gun barrel from its deck and one the ship's anchors – which weighs 16,000 pounds! 

Finally, did you know that I-10 west of Phoenix is named in honor of those who died at Pearl Harbor? You may have, as we told you about it in a post from a couple years ago. In brief, the state legislature passed a resolution in 1995 declaring that stretch of I-10 to be the "Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway." And just to tie everything together, the first highway sign to go up on I-10 displaying the name was originally unveiled 25 years ago today, near the mast, gun and anchor in Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza. 

But if you don't feel like traveling right now to see reminders of Pearl Harbor, you are in luck. You can catch a glimpse of the mast, gun and anchor – as well as the other memorials – in these slideshows that an ADOT photographer took during separate events honoring veterans at the plaza a few years ago. It is one way we can help observe this infamous day. 

With its first monsoon season under its belt, data shows that ADOT’s innovative dust detection and warning system works as designed.

Monsoon 2020, however, was not the most robust weather event, jokingly dubbed a ‘nonsoon.’

“It was a mixed blessing,” said David Locher, resident engineer for the project. “Less dust storms is obviously a good thing when it comes to driving conditions; however, we didn't have the normal weather events that would have been ideal for data gathering in our first season.”

There was one 20-minute event that provided measurable data. At one point during that storm, visibility dropped to less than 300 feet, triggering the speed limit to drop to 35 mph, which happens incrementally. How did drivers react to the warning system? The loop detectors showed that the average vehicle was driving about 45 mph, a big drop from the normal 75 mph limit.

“We do know that the system is working — it is doing what it’s supposed to,” said Kevin Duby, statewide road weather manager. “Our next step is to take the data we have to evaluate and determine the efficiencies of the system to improve performance.”

Often debilitating, dust storms in the area between Tucson and Phoenix have been a safety concern for several years. A study from 2010 and 2015 detailed how traffic was impacted along that Interstate 10 corridor, showing 83 dust-related crashes with more than half of them occurring within about a half-mile of each other.

The 10-mile area between mileposts 209 and 219 was identified as the focus of safety efforts. In 2016, ADOT, Arizona Department of Public Safety and National Weather Service staff, as well as vendors and contractors, began creating a system to help Arizona drivers be better equipped to deal with dust storms. Nothing of this nature existed so it was a momentous undertaking and would require substantial funding. A Federal Highway Administration grant was secured to help fund the $72 million project, which also included widening I-10 and improvements to the State Route 87 traffic interchange.

The dust-detection technology employed includes overhead message boards, variable speed limit signs, closed-circuit cameras and short-range detectors for blowing dust. In addition, a long-range weather X-Band radar dish is part of the system, sitting atop a 22-foot-tall pole at the SR 87 interchange that can detect storms more than 40 miles away. X-Band is frequency range from 8 to 12 gigahertz, which is most often used for civil, military and government radar applications such as weather monitoring, air traffic control, maritime vessel traffic control, defense tracking and vehicle speed detection for law enforcement. Its lower frequencies make this band suitable for the harshest weather conditions, providing exceptionally high link availability for weather-monitoring radar solutions.

Despite the literally dry run this year, the first-of-its-kind dust-detection and warning system has already received some impressive kudos. It received regional recognition in the 2020 America’s Transportation Awards contest in the Operational Excellence category. Sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AAA. The National Weather Service (NWS) also named ADOT as a 2020 Weather Ready Nation Ambassador of Excellence, for upholding the shared mission of protecting life and property through proactive public outreach and hazard mitigation efforts, and specificially cited the dust detection system.

This perfect storm of technology was assembled for this project, and its impact will be measured more in depth as time goes on.

One of ADOT’s major priorities while rebuilding the I-10/Houghton Road interchange is to minimize disruptions and closures, which means we’ve got to move really fast when we close a roadway.

If you’ve driven through that interchange in the last couple months, you’ve seen that our crews have moved so quickly that they’ve transformed the landscape on half of the interchange in less than two months. This photo from the project team shows the work so far, including constructing bridge piers for a new overpass on the west side of the interchange, regrading everything on the east side of interchange and building up the earth for new ramps.

That’s a lot of progress for a project that kicked off Aug. 24.

We closed two of the interchange’s ramps in late August, with a goal of rebuilding and reopening them before Thanksgiving. Those ramps – the westbound exit ramp and eastbound on-ramp – are already taking shape and should be paved by early November.

We’ll rebuild the ramps on the west side of the interchange as well, but they will remain open through the project except for an occasional nighttime restriction or closure. Likewise, only occasional overnight restrictions and closures will be needed on Houghton Road. And, I-10 will remain open, though drivers should expect overnight lane restrictions at times.

The new $24.4 million interchange east of downtown Tucson is expected to be complete in late 2021. It will feature southern Arizona’s first diverging diamond interchange – a type of interchange where drivers cross and travel on the left side of the overpass while crossing the interstate.

You can read more about the I-10/Houghton Road project and diverging diamonds here. And if you’ve driven through north Phoenix recently, you may have noticed ADOT opened Arizona’s first major diverging diamond interchange earlier this month at I-17 and Happy Valley Road. The Phoenix interchange won’t be fully complete until late this fall, but the major elements are in place if you’re looking to get a feel for what’s coming to I-10 and Houghton Road in southern Arizona next year.

You probably saw the concrete bridge piers rise from the ground.

And you certainly noticed cranes hoist massive bridge girders onto the piers.

But you may not have thought the future bridge at I-10 and Ruthrauff looked like an actual bridge – until the recent work to pour a concrete deck atop the girders.

The concrete pour signals another important step in the process of building a new Ruthrauff Road/El Camino del Cerro bridge that will span I-10 by next year as part of a $129 million interchange reconstruction project in Tucson. It’s the first of several concrete pours that will take place through next year as crews build the structure in phases.

While you can see the concrete deck in place, few people saw the concrete pour because it took place in the middle of the night. Crews worked from about 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. on a recent day to complete pouring 290 cubic yards of concrete. 

Those hours aren’t the most fun for a lot of us, but there’s a good reason behind the schedule. The concrete is more workable during cooler nighttime hours at this time of year. And it’s less likely to crack in that temperature range because the concrete sets up more gradually.

Crews poured concrete over just half of the existing structure, and they’ll be back in about a week to finish the remaining portion of the bridge above eastbound I-10.

You’ll see the entire process again above westbound I-10 beginning in early 2021. That will require shifting eastbound and westbound I-10 traffic beneath the portion of the bridge that’s under construction now.

During the entire process, ADOT will maintain three lanes of traffic in each direction during daytime hours. And we’ll maintain access to local businesses.

For updates and traffic alerts, please visit azdot.gov/RuthrauffTI.

When we think of essential workers these days, certainly commercial truck drivers are among them.

And after hours on the road, it’s imperative they have a safe place to stop and rest before hitting the highway again. However, when rest stop parking is full, some have a difficult time finding a place to pull over or, even worse, drive fatigued. 

Four states – California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas –  make up the I-10 Corridor Coalition, and as a team are working to find a solution. They’re asking commercial drivers and those in the trucking community to complete a survey to understand what parking challenges are faced along the corridor and help plan a system to help. You can take the truck parking survey here. 

Survey answers will help drive the creation of a Truck Parking Availability System (TPAS), which will monitor open truck parking spots at rest stops along the corridor, and provide this real-time information to truck drivers. Once created, electronic signs would display the number of open parking spaces at 37 public truck stops and rest areas from California to Texas. 

In Arizona, the Department of Transportation is planning to add these improvements at four rest areas along I-10 at locations on both the eastbound and westbound sides of the highway. These include the Bouse Wash, Ehrenberg, Texas Canyon and San Simon rest areas.

Don’t delay! The survey closes Oct. 30, 2020.

For more information about the survey, the I-10 truck parking availability system project or the I-10 Corridor Coalition, visit I10connects.com.