We’re building a safer and more efficient interchange at Interstate 10 and Ruthrauff Road, but that can’t happen until we demolish all the old stuff.

To show you what’s involved, we’re sharing this ADOT video of the recent work to dismantle the eastbound I-10 bridge over Ruthrauff Road/El Camino del Cerro. Watch as Dan Casmer, ADOT’s senior resident engineer on the project, explains why we’re lowering I-10 so a new bridge can carry Ruthrauff Road over the highway and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.

The video also shows how crews are doing what seems like a ton of work, so to speak. But if you’re counting how much material crews are removing, they’re really doing 1,215 tons of work.

Here’s a quick look at much concrete and steel crews ripped apart while demolishing the bridge:

• 1,090 tons of concrete
• 85 tons of steel girders
• 40 tons of steel rebar

One thing you won’t see in the video or if you drive through the area: Everything being trucked away.

Only the steel will leave the site, hauled off to be recycled. Most of the concrete will remain within the mile-long project area. It will be crushed and used as fill material.

The $129 million I-10/Ruthrauff Road project began in January and is scheduled for completion in late 2021.

With state highways essential to delivering goods and services, ADOT, its employees and its contractor partners are dedicated to delivering transportation improvement projects during the current public health situation. To learn more please visit azdot.gov/covid-19-resource-center.  

Since an eastbound Interstate 10 bridge started carrying traffic over Ruthrauff Road in 1965, the number of vehicles that have traveled this northwestern Tucson locale is impossible to calculate.

But once crews began demolishing the structure this week, we can count exactly how much time it took to reduce the bridge’s surface into concrete rubble and twisted rebar: two days.

This Flickr album of the demolition work shows the rapid progress we’re making to rebuild I-10/Ruthrauff Road interchange only two months after starting the $129 million project.

As for the remaining parts of the bridge, they’ll also be history by the end of the week.

If you’re wondering how I-10 traffic can keep flowing with one of two bridges now gone at Ruthrauff Road, here’s the solution ADOT’s project team has in place: Westbound I-10 traffic is now getting through the work zone on the westbound frontage road, while eastbound I-10 traffic has been shifted to the old westbound lanes.

Some temporary sections of pavement allow three lanes of traffic to flow in each direction. And we’re maintaining access to all businesses with other temporary changes to the frontage roads.

The demolition work is just one of many dramatic changes drivers will see until the I-10/Ruthrauff Road project is completed in late 2021. Stay tuned for more photos and other updates.

If your daily commute takes you along Interstate 10 in northwest Tucson, get ready to see some big changes to the freeway's configuration by the end of this weekend.

But that will be nothing compared with the even bigger changes that will transform the highway near Ruthrauff Road in the coming year: A decades-old bridge will soon become rubble. Retaining walls will rise up. And half of a new overpass will emerge at the center of a mile-long work zone.

That’s a lot of change to take in as ADOT begins a major phase of the nearly two-year project to rebuild the Ruthrauff Road/El Camino del Cerro interchange.

And it all starts with traffic restrictions this weekend. Here’s what to expect ...

On Friday and Saturday nights, crews will work overnight to move traffic away from the current eastbound lanes of I-10. That means shifting westbound I-10 to the westbound frontage road, and eastbound I-10 to the existing westbound lanes.

“That gives us the ability to create a pretty large work zone for that western half of the project, while still maintaining three lanes of traffic in each direction through the project area,” said Dan Casmer, ADOT’s senior resident engineer on the Ruthrauff interchange project.

With traffic out of the work zone, crews will start demolishing the existing eastbound I-10 bridge over Ruthrauff Road by the end of the month. After drainage and other underground utility work is complete, crews will rebuild about a one-mile segment of eastbound I-10.

That will be followed by retaining walls and half of the new Ruthrauff/El Camino del Cerro bridge, probably the most visible signs of progress for drivers.

“They’re going to see a lot of work going on and it’s going to move pretty quickly once we give the contractor that big area to work in,” Casmer said. “You’ll see that demolition happen almost immediately.”

For the rest of this year, the traffic shift will place drivers on a mix of existing pavement and some stretches of new asphalt. While much of that pavement will be temporary, crews took care to fill in dips and avoid jarring bumps.

“We’ve done a lot of prep work so it should be a nice smooth ride,” Casmer said.

You can find more information about the I-10/Ruthrauff Road project, including traffic alerts, at azdot.gov/RuthrauffTI.

Work started today on a project that will bring big improvements to the Tucson area by reconstructing the interchange at Interstate 10 and Ruthrauff Road.

As we shared last week, the project will improve traffic flow and safety for drivers, and it’s the third of its kind in the last several years that ADOT has undertaken in conjunction with the Pima Association of Governments.

Just like the rebuilt interchanges at Ina and Prince roads, this modern design will feature an overpass above the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. More than 40 trains a day pass through Tucson, leading to plenty of backups onto the freeway and delays for drivers on Ruthruaff. And like the Ina and Prince projects, we’ll widen I-10 near Ruthrauff Road so the highway can better serve this growing region.

If you use Ruthrauff Road, or El Camino del Cerro just west of I-10, expect periodic lane restrictions for the next several weeks. Construction activity will ramp up by late February or early March, when the Ruthrauff interchange will close.

We’ll maintain access to businesses on the frontage roads throughout the project.

We expect to complete the interchange in late 2021. Get traffic updates, detour information and project details at azdot.gov/RuthrauffTI.