When was the last time you had to climb up on top of a chair to change a light bulb?

Sure, that pesky hallway light is a pain to replace, but it's your place and someone has to keep the lights on.

We feel for you. That's why we chose this photo from nearly 50 years ago of crews doing something similar, checking and cleaning the fluorescent lights of a tunnel from on top of truck-mounted scaffolding. 

To be perfectly honest, we don't know which tunnel this is. We've looked at it every which way and still our best guess is it could be either the Queen Creek Tunnel, on US 60 between Superior and Miami, or the Mule Pass Tunnel on State Route 80 just before Bisbee. The only note on the photo simply says "Tunnel light cleaning October 1971."

If it is the Queen Creek Tunnel, then the whole lighting system you see here was replaced in 2016 when we put in a light-emitting diode, or LED, lighting system to improve visibility and save on energy.  

Tunnel cleaning is still a regular part of ADOT's highway maintenance. Most noticeably is that four times a year crews will spend a night cleaning each direction of Interstate 10 as it passes through the Deck Park Tunnel, including making sure the lights are working. As you can see from this video from several years ago, today we have the advantage of using pressure washers and bucket trucks to reach those high places. 

By Dustin Krugel
ADOT Office of Public Information

In an ongoing effort to modernize the state’s highway system, the Arizona Department of Transportation recently secured a $1 million federal grant to replace the antiquated lighting in the US 60 Queen Creek Tunnel near Superior with a new light-emitting diode (LED) lighting system, which will be the first tunnel in Arizona to have this new innovative technology.

The new lighting system will improve visibility in the tunnel, which was originally built in 1952, by using an adaptive control system that will adjust the lighting level within the tunnel based upon ambient light and weather conditions outside the tunnel.

The new lighting system will also significantly reduce the power consumption, while decreasing maintenance frequency for the tunnel (lane closures, traffic delays).

The tunnel first opened to traffic in 1953.

“This project is one of several in store for the US 60 corridor that will ultimately enhance safety between Globe and the Phoenix metro area, including the Silver King/Superior Streets widening project west of the Queen Creek Tunnel and the Oak Flats climbing lane project east of the tunnel,” said ADOT Globe District Engineer Jesse Gutierrez. “The new lighting system will provide sufficient visibility in the tunnel for safety while using the least amount of energy.”

The funding comes from the Federal Highway Administration Accelerated Innovation Deployment Demonstration program, which will ultimately invest $30 million in incentive funding for federal, state, local and tribal government agencies to hasten their use of innovative methods. The AID program builds on the success of the agency’s ongoing Every Day Counts initiative, a partnership between the Federal Highway Administration and state and local transportation agencies to accelerate the deployment of innovative methods and cut project delivery times.

ADOT expects to replace the lighting system beginning in 2015, which will require new conduit and wiring in the quarter-mile-long tunnel. The total project cost is estimated to be $3.8 million.

ADOT was one of only six states to receive one of the grants designed to accelerate deployment of innovative transportation projects, and the $1 million grant to Arizona matched Michigan’s for the largest received.