An ADOT Highway Operations Supervisor came across a sight Monday morning that he’s never seen before …

As he was driving by Jeddito Wash on SR 87, Elliott Koinva noticed that thousands of tumbleweeds had clustered together to form a kind of solid wall.

“The wash is about 15 feet deep and about 20 feet wide,” Koinva said. “The whole wash was filled with tumbleweeds.”

He suspects an overnight storm north of the wash must have carried the tumbleweeds down. There were so many tumbleweeds that a box culvert got clogged and some flooding occurred.

Although there normally are a lot of tumbleweeds in this area, near Second Mesa, Monday morning’s occurrence was something extraordinary.

“This was the first time this has happened,” Koinva said. “I was surprised.”

ADOT’s Holbrook District Superintendent Lindy Sherrer says ADOT crews will use pitch forks to start clearing out the box culvert. Because the area’s flooded, machinery won’t be used until some of the water drains away.

Construction work along State Route 87 is set to wrap up just in time for the upcoming holiday weekend!

That means motorists who travel between the Valley and Rim Country communities this Memorial Day – and all summer long – will enjoy a safer, quicker and more scenic drive.

SR 87 is the major link between the metro Phoenix region and Payson and is a popular route for Valley residents hoping to take a vacation from the heat.

Holiday weekends and summer months are particularly busy for the stretch of road. In the past, large numbers of vehicles heading back down to the Valley would create backups on the last steep incline before the highway drops toward the Bush Highway.

But, now drivers should see some significant upgrades to portions of the highway!