We understand that sometimes the going on Interstate 40 can get rough. But, setting aside the rest of that old adage, ADOT continues to invest in the 360-mile northern Arizona corridor.

Last week, maintenance crews began smoothing out some of those rough patches along a 6-mile stretch of I-40 in Kingman. They are milling down patches of rough pavement between Andy Devine Avenue and milepost 46, west of the city limits. This will help create a smoother, safer ride for drivers in Kingman.

Other work currently being done along I-40 includes replacing pavement along a 10-mile stretch between I-17 and Walnut Canyon Road in east Flagstaff. There are also 10 bridges along I-40 that are being worked on. 

All of this work adds to the more than 90 miles of pavement work and 47 bridges that have been repaired, upgraded or replaced along I-40 since 2016.

"OK," you say, "that’s great. But, there are needed improvements in the Mohave County region. Are there plans for that portion of I-40?"

You’re absolutely right. ADOT has been doing a lot of needed bridge and pavement work in the Flagstaff area due to damage from years of snow and ice and heavy use. There are plans for pavement rehabilitation projects ranging from 10 to 15-mile stretches of I-40 in a few areas around Kingman and west of Ash Fork. There are plans for bridge improvements in the Mohave County region as well. These projects can be found in our current Five-Year Construction Program.

And, of course, the big project of the West Kingman traffic interchange improving traffic flow between US 93 and I-40 is coming in 2024.

While these projects do depend upon available funding to get done, we remain steadfast in our efforts to improve I-40. Our track record of committing $297 million to various improvements along the I-40 corridor since 2016 demonstrates that.

 

Today, in the midst of triple-digit temperatures throughout the state, we throwback to a frosty winter’s scene in 1967 Flagstaff, showing what is today Interstate 17 meeting Interstate 40. 

Of course, at the time, the road that would become I-17 was still known as State Route 79. It officially upgraded to interstate status in 1971. And I-40 would not be formally christened in Flagstaff until 1968, a year after this photo was snapped. The entire stretch across the state would be completed in 1984.

Immediately, our eyes are drawn to the snow-capped San Francisco Peaks, rising majestically over the City of Seven Wonders to a maximal apex of more than 12,600 feet.

And just below the peak, on the right side of the frame, we see the streets of downtown Flagstaff to the north, and an evergreen-shrouded Northern Arizona University immediately to its south. Not pictured: The Walkup Skydome, which wouldn’t break ground for another eight years, opening in 1977.

Nestled in the hills just west of downtown, is Lowell Observatory. At the time this photo was captured, Lowell was playing an integral role in the Apollo moon landing mission. The once-but-sadly-no-longer-a-planet Pluto was discovered there in 1930. Lowell Observatory sits atop Mars Hill… perhaps a glimpse into future discoveries.

Today, there are fewer trees and more shopping centers in the area immediately surrounding Milton Road, the street I-17 becomes after crossing I-40. But there are still plenty of ponderosa pines that peek down on visitors.

Currently, we have two ongoing I-40 projects in the Flagstaff area, and even more the further away we go. Meanwhile, I-17 has a slew of projects on deck in our Tentative Five-Year Construction Program.

So, while it continues to heat up in the Copper State this summer, we can lose ourselves in this refreshing glimpse of a time much cooler.

If ever a name conjured up stories of former times and dastardly deeds, it’s Two Guns, an abandoned town on Interstate 40 with more tales of the Wild West than a saguaro cactus has needles.

Today, Two Guns is one of two locations along Interstate 40 east of Flagstaff where the Arizona Department of Transportation has launched a bridge rehabilitation project. Between there and just down the highway at Meteor Crater Road, the ambitious project will remove and replace both bridge decks. Other modernizations will include roadway embankment improvements, new guardrails, new barriers, and other tweaks to bring the bridges up to modern standards. 

As good as these improvements will be, these emblems of engineering also serve as a bridge (pun intended) to mustier, sepia-toned times, times not only of colorful cowboys but also of earlier bridge projects that were, for their time, monuments to modernity.

That Two Guns has a thorny past is as much of an understatement as the phrase “dry heat.”

It starts with the so-called "Apache Death Cave" where it is said 42 Apache were massacred in 1878. The rival Navajo had gotten wind the Apache were using a cave to travel undetected and set up an ambush. You can still visit the Apache Death Cave today by using the Two Guns exit on I-40.

Another story goes that from 1879-80, Billy the Kid and other outlaws used the ruins of a stone house in Canyon Diablo, a chasm near Two Guns, as their hideout. 

In 1882, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad succeeded in building a trestle bridge over the 225-foot-deep, 550-foot-wide Canyon Diablo. Considered a stunning achievement, the span – described as a “bridge of spindly steel legs” in our 2012 Arizona Transportation History  – was the first east-west crossing in northern Arizona and of vital economic importance to trade and the transfer of supplies. It wasn’t replaced by another railroad bridge until 1946.

Another Canyon Diablo Bridge, this time built to handle the new-fangled automobile, opened to traffic in 1915. For a short time, this would even carry the Mother Road itself, US 66, until it was replaced by a more modern bridge built farther north on I-40 near, yep, you guessed it, Two Guns. You can still visit the original span today, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Finally, as we told you about in another blog last year, perhaps the wildest denizen of Two Guns is the one who gave the community its name: entrepreneur, attraction operator, liar and murderer Henry "Chief Crazy Thunder" Miller. 

From the relics of the Wild West outlaw days to modern I-40 and the current bridge getting a state-of-the-art makeover, a stop at Two Guns as you travel east from Flagstaff will definitely help bridge the past and the present.