Saguaros are blooming in much of the state, including some of the larger, newly transplanted saguaros along the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway.

But some of the younger, smaller saguaros (called “spears” because they have no arms) along this 22-mile highway, which opened December 2019, are still covered in a black mesh to protect them from sunburn. The burning question some drivers have is why are these coverings still on some of them, and how long do they need to stay on?

Kirk Kiser, an ADOT landscape architect, said the shade cloths will stay on these spears for at least two growing seasons, until they are well established. 

According to Kiser, when ADOT relocates saguaros, their solar orientations are marked, so when they are transplanted, the south side faces the sun, the same direction in which they were growing when they were harvested. “Solar orientation is key,” he said. 

Not all of the spears you see along the South Mountain Freeway need this extra protection. Kiser said the ones that do were originally procured from a nursery grower that couldn’t guarantee which solar orientation the saguaros faced in the wild. “Providing a shade cloth helps to mitigate this condition, plus it mimics the shade normally provided from a host tree,” he said.

So to be safe, and give them the best shot at survival, ADOT landscapers are keeping them covered until at least the end of the year. The good news is that overall survival rates are best for these younger, armless saguaro spears.  

ADOT salvaged more than 1,000 saguaros, palo verde trees and other native plants from the freeway’s path, where they spent time in a temporary nursery before being moved to their permanent homes along the new freeway. 

How do you pick a single theme for beautifying the 22-mile Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway?

That was the question facing the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Roadside Development Section once work began on the new $2 billion freeway, which today provides a much needed alternative to Interstate 10 through downtown Phoenix.

After considerable discussion, the answer was, you don’t.

“This was the largest project we have ever done,” said Joseph Salazar, project team leader for ADOT's Landscape Architecture and Aesthetics. “We wanted to show a diversity of ideas, multiple themes reflecting different areas.”

As ADOT recently commemorated the one-year anniversary of the opening of the freeway, Salazar described the different art ideas along the bridges, sound walls and landforms of the ambitious project.

If diversity was sought, it was found in forms ranging from Hohokam images to geometric stripes in brilliant hues of green, red and yellow. Simple shapes reflect the area’s landscape, animals, history and vegetation. Bold angles and lines signify the more urban nature as the freeway turns toward downtown Phoenix. You can see a sampling of all these designs in the Flickr album to the right.

Working along with the project team were artists from the Cosanti and Frank Lloyd Wright foundations, as well as others.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s influence in the freeway's Ahwatukee section stems from the 1920s Ocotillo camp, near what is now 32nd Street, where Wright produced designs for a desert resort that was never built due to the 1929 stock market crash.

“The architectural camp site still exists, but all of the buildings are gone,” Salazar said.

The walls of Wright’s camp featured horizontal lines echoing the desert floor and long horizons, so freeway sound walls in that area have horizontal lines, in contrast to vertical lines on other Valley freeways.  

Symmetrical waves with curling tops march in a pattern against a red background near the Salt River. Toward Laveen, two-toned green leaves with “Arcosanti leaf portals” harken to the agricultural areas of Laveen, Salazar said.

“Once you cross the Salt River Bridge, we see the urban link pattern that represents the urbanization of the Valley and the urban link of the I-10 coming together with Loop 202, the two highways coming together,” he said.

As you drive along the one-year-old freeway, consider how the artwork represents agriculture, urbanization, the Salt and Gila rivers, Paolo Saleri and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Last December there was one question everyone was asking us on social media: Is it open yet?

And it was a year ago today – as you can see in the Facebook post to the right – that we were finally able to say the answer was a definitive yes!

We are, of course, talking about the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, which completed the Loop 101 and Loop 202 system and had been approved by Maricopa County voters as far back as 1985. Today it seems almost impossible to imagine the Valley freeway system without it, but at the time it felt like that really big present under the Christmas tree that you can't wait to unwrap.

The South Mountain Freeway had been under construction for three-and-a-half years and represented the largest freeway project in state history. It was also Arizona’s first highway project built using a public-private partnership, which combined design, construction and maintenance in a single contract and saved taxpayers more than $100 million.

During those years of construction we were able to pass along tantalizing details from its construction, including when the first pavement was poured; when native plant species were preserved to be replanted along the freeway; and when the last of 292 bridge girders went into place to span the Salt River. We shared mind-boggling numbers such as the total volume of earthwork moved could fill State Farm Stadium 15 times, or that the amount of rebar used weighed the same 3,100 African bush elephants.

The long-envisioned alternate connector between the East and West Valleys was highly anticipated, to say the least.

Governor Doug Ducey, ADOT Director John Halikowski and other notables gathered for a formal ribbon cutting in mid-December and just a few days later – after all the construction i's were dotted and t's crossed – it was open for any and all interested drivers.

So what did you all think about it? Well below is just a smattering of the praise the South Mountain Freeway garnered on social media right after the opening:

• "Phenomenal job on the 202 extension. Travel it several times from South Mountain to I-10 but today marks the first time I used it to travel to the East Valley. Excellent ride. No need to travel I-10 or travel congested Baseline Rd. Kudos on a job well done. We love it."
• "So grateful for the new 202 loop! It cut so much time off of my commute to and from work. Makes such a difference in your quality of life when you are battling traffic during the week! Thank you to everyone who made this possible."
• "The best! It saved me 30 minutes when driving to Tucson. I loved it!"
• "Our 202 loops and 101 loops are works of complete genius. There will always be a need for freeway upgrades and expansions, but the addition of the South Mountain 202 Loop is nothing short of a miracle. I don't need to use it everyday. I'll let the thrill wear down a bit ... then look out metro Phoenix, it will be my turn! Can't wait!"
• "Crazy how you can get from 59th Avenue/I-10 area to I-10 Ahwatukee area so easy now! Good start to 2020."
• "Great design and construction work, thank you for this great addition to our roadways!"
• "Great job on this new stretch of freeways in the Valley. I drove it yesterday and it's gonna be a time and headache saver for so many drivers. Hats off to all involved!"

The South Mountain Freeway has even earned national recognition, winning first place in the regional awards for the 2020 America’s Transportation Awards competition and was nominated as one of 12 national finalists.

We can hardly believe that a year has come and gone already, but hope Valley drivers will keep enjoying the South Mountain Freeway for many more years to come.

When the shared-use path along the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway in Ahwatukee opened about a month ago, the opening-day crowd could not have been more excited. Individuals and groups on bicycles moved quickly down the path, along with some on skateboards and even one woman on Rollerblades. The ladies’ cross country team from Desert Vista High School used the path for a morning run.

That was the primary objective when the Arizona Department of Transportation added the path to plans for the freeway: Creating a path to be shared by all members of the community regardless of their fitness level, age or even species (leashed dogs and horses are also allowed to use the path). In the interest of safety, no motorized vehicles are permitted on the path, but everyone else – from young parents walking with a small child, to older area residents casually walking to get some exercise, to serious cyclists looking to ride fast – is welcome.

Sadly, within the first week after the path opened, there were reports that not everyone is playing well with others. Some are acting as if their use of the path has a higher priority than others.

That’s wrong. The path belongs to everyone.

On the adjacent freeway, drivers don’t win priority because their vehicle is larger or shinier or newer than others. Safe driving rules apply to everyone. Share the road.

Share the path. Please. And thank you.

One last item: You’ll also be sharing the path, on limited occasions, with work trucks. In the next few weeks, those trucks may be completing work adjacent to the freeway. Sometimes they will be maintaining utilities. But that will only happen when there are no alternatives for accessing the work, and drivers know to look for cyclists, walkers and others enjoying the path. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience.

Just before the new year, we opened the 22-mile long South Mountain Freeway. Now, we can show it off with our traffic cameras! AZ511.gov now displays 20 cameras along the South Mountain Freeway.

Most of the cameras are at major exits along the route. The freeway isn't completely done and a few more cameras will come online once it's completed. If you regularly travel the Loop 202, you'll want to set up a personalized account on az511.gov so you can see the cameras along your route. If you just want to check out all of our cameras, you can visit az511.gov and make sure "Cameras" is checked on the menu on the right. 

As you probably know, ADOT uses traffic cameras to help manage traffic. When the ADOT Traffic Operations Center is notified of a freeway incident, dispatchers use our camera system to search for the incident. Once it's spotted, appropriate personnel are dispatched. Often Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers will be dispatched for a crash, but you may see a sweeper sent out to clean debris from the freeway or an ADOT Incident Response Unit helping set up traffic control. 

Once you check the new cameras, let us know how you like them on Twitter at azdot.gov/ArizonaDOT. If you mostly access information using your mobile device, you can also see our cameras by downloading the AZ 511 app. 

Could we ask for a favor?

We promise it's easier than giving a ride to the airport or housesitting a cat.

You see, we were pretty enthused last month when we learned that three ADOT projects had won first-place honors in the regional awards for the 2020 America’s Transportation Awards competition. What department of transportation wouldn't be honored that the road work it had labored on was making a splash among its peers?

But while telling people about the kudos, we also mentioned there was a possibility for those projects to be considered for the "Top 12," a nationwide competition of – you guessed it – 12 projects vying to win either the Grand Prize or People's Choice Award.

Imagine then how we felt this week to announce the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, the $2 billion construction project that opened to traffic last December and was literally the biggest thing we've ever managed, had been chosen by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (or AASHTO) to go head-to-head with 11 other projects from across the country. These projects were chosen because they make travel in the U.S. safer, better and more accessible to motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians.

And here's where that favor comes in.

The Grand Prize winner will be determined by a independent panel of transportation experts looking closely at each submission, but the People's Choice Award is just what it sounds like – a vote by the general public on their favorite project. So we need your help ensuring that the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway gets the recognition it deserves. 

If you are one of the thousands of people who uses the new freeway regularly or have just used it a few times to get from the east to west Valley (or vice versa!), now's your chance to show your support. You can cast votes for the South Mountain Freeeway through Oct. 25 by going to AmericasTransportationAwards.org. And here's the kicker: It's not a one-and-done thing. You can cast a vote every single day of the competition to help make sure the South Mountain Freeway rises to the top.

To sweeten the deal, we'll also mention the project that takes home the Grand Prize or the People's Choice Award also gets $10,000 to donate toward a charity or a transportation-related scholarship.

So please take few minutes each day to throw a vote toward making the South Mountain Freeway the clear favorite when the winners are announced in November. Even if you can't do it that often, every vote counts!

And after that ... maybe we could talk about getting a ride to the airport?