I-17

Just in time for the Christmas and New Year holidays, ADOT has completed the new Cordes Junction ‘flyover’ bridge, which is now open to traffic!

Winter is coming… Maybe that’s hard to believe if you live in hotter regions of the state, but residents up north already are starting to experience chillier temperatures.

Here we are, past the halfway point on the I-17/Cordes Junction interchange project and it’s clear that work is really moving along! At least, it’s clear if you drive the area frequently, or if you watched this video back in February. Crews have been busy since then, as you can see above.

The “mystery tree” on I-17 still has us baffled, so imagine our bewilderment upon seeing these photos of a shoe tree off of State Route 87, south of Payson.

Just last month we blogged about a project that’s under way on I-17 and SR 69 in Cordes Junction. So, maybe you’re wondering why we’re bringing it up again so soon … Well, we’re blogging about it today because we’ve got an awesome new video (see above) that details the entire project and shows footage from January when crews installed some precast girders – a milestone in the construction.

Last week we received a blog comment requesting an update on the I-17 bridges that span over Pinewood Boulevard in Munds Park. We thought it was a great suggestion and figured a blog post was in order!

Those of you who have ever taken I-17 north or south through our state probably are pretty familiar with the Cordes Junction traffic interchange. It’s the one that sits right between Flagstaff and Phoenix and serves about 13,000 vehicles a day (that’s in addition to the more than 27,000 vehicles that travel daily on I-17 at the junction of SR 69).

The official start of winter is approaching, but the cold weather is already here! Over the past few weeks, we’ve told you how ADOT prepares for the snowy conditions common this time of year in Arizona’s high country.

As ADOT employees, we naturally get a lot of transportation-related questions thrown our way by friends and family... it’s just something that comes with the job! But, another question we regularly get focuses on the rock landscaping surrounding our Valley freeways. People want to know why we don’t just use trees and shrubs instead of rock. Others wonder why we landscape the area at all.

It’s not often that a tree gets wrapped up in a mystery, but a lot of unanswered questions surround one Juniper growing next to I-17. Some Arizonans might already know about the tree – it’s actually sort of famous around the state and even has its own Wikipedia page.

Memorial Day weekend is here and if you’re headed out of town you probably have your travel plans all wrapped up by now. Hopefully those plans already include some safety preparations … if not, here are a few things to think about before hitting the road!

The bridges over Pinewood Boulevard in Munds Park have been carrying Interstate-17 traffic for the past 53 years and now it’s time for some well-deserved reconstruction! ADOT has already begun the project that will rebuild the bridges and ramps on I-17 at Munds Park , an area just south of Flagstaff . Work started last month and is scheduled to wrap up by fall 2012.