We may not have jet packs and flying cars like the Jetsons, but technology has definitely advanced since ADOT’s early days. Technology we use every day — like the Word document I’m using to write this story right now — are so pervasive it’s hard to imagine a workplace without them.

Words on the page

In 1987, the Wang word-processing system was primarily used by employees from the Contracts and Specifications and the Right of Way sections, who together were producing approximately 1.1 million documents each year at the time.

Today, nearly every section of ADOT is touched by the modern word-processing program Microsoft Office Word.  Many consider the program a given and wouldn’t expect any functional computer to be without it.

Sending messages over the decades

Electronic mail is probably the most revolutionary technology that touches each of us every day. Before email, the fastest mode of communication was by telephone and by fax. However, neither of those modes allowed the user to have a lasting, verbatim record of the communication shared. While a phone call might leave a log and a fax might leave a paper copy, both would be prone to being either erased or lost. Nowadays, with the recovery capability of the cloud, emails are a much more lasting form of communication.

Charting maps, planning roads

Maps are and always have been one of ADOT’s most useful tools. With the advent of geographic information systems (GIS) assisted by satellite imagery and computer-aided design and drafting (CADD), making maps and planning roads have become, maybe not easier, but definitely more informed.

About 50 years ago, an accurate map of the state and its highway system could take up an entire room. These low-tech, paper-and-ink maps were made by piecing together 30 sections of a state atlas that displayed 400 square miles at a time.

“We needed a map that we could lay out as one continuous chart to show small stretches of roadway in great detail,” Travel and Facilities Section Manager James Pfalzer told ADOT’s employee newsletter Newsbeat in 1977.

GIS also helps ADOT see where crashes happen, and with satellite imagery, it’s easier to view areas where crashes happen most frequently without ever having to leave the comfort of an air-conditioned office. Perhaps there’s a tree blocking visibility or a degraded patch of roadway leading to more crashes. Using GIS and satellite imagery, ADOT engineers have a new tool in their belt for figuring out what needs to be done.

As an agency, ADOT will always rely on better, more efficient technology to best serve Arizona taxpayers. Half a century ago, that technology included typewriters and paper maps taped together for a full view of the state’s highway system. Just imagine what our standard office technology will look in another 50 years.

This year's monsoon hasn't hit with anything too bad, at least so far, but it's always helpful to be reminded of how hazardous extreme weather can be.

According to The Associated Press, on this date in 1917 a 5-mile stretch of the Ajo Highway was reported washed out and the southern Arizona communities of Sasco and Silverbell were cut off as roads and bridges were destroyed. Also on that day, hail fell 6 inches deep in Flagstaff.

Whew – that's a bad weather day!

Now with the caveat that today's state highways are paved and built to stand up to savage weather, this bit of history shows that sometimes Mother Nature will pull out all the stops, including while you are driving.

That's why we are constantly reminding people to check the weather along their routes before hitting the road. If you encounter weather while driving, remember some common-sense safety tips:

• Expect the unexpected. Have extra supplies, including a fully charged cellphone, drinking water and an emergency kit in case you experience an extended highway closure.
• Before you drive, inspect your windshield wipers, and replace them if necessary.
• When faced with low- or zero-visibility conditions, pull your vehicle off the road as far to the right as possible. Turn off your lights, set the parking brake and take your foot off the brake pedal. These steps reduce the chances that other drivers mistake your vehicle as the one to follow. As we always say, Pull Aside, Stay Alive!
• Don't risk crossing a flooded wash, even if it doesn't look deep. Water is a powerful force that should not be underestimated. Even a few inches of running water poses a serious risk.
• Turn on your headlights while driving in heavy rain or snow.
• Reduce your speed and maintain a safe distance between your vehicle and the one in front of you.

Our website has these and a plethora of other tips for any driving conditions you might encounter including snow and ice, rainstorms and dust storms. 

No one knows when we'll have another day like in 1917, but the least you can do is make sure you are prepared, just in case.

On this date in 1921, nine years and some months after statehood, the Arizona Highway Department published the first incarnation of Arizona Highways. 

Looks a little different from the glossy magazine featuring stunning landscape photography and rich storytelling about Arizona, doesn't it? 

This first printing, shown above, was a pamphlet describing various highway projects across Arizona's counties. 

And that's it. Page after page about construction projects, federal legislation and a couple of industry articles. No photos, no travel tips, no must-see destinations.

The pamphlet's forward, charmingly called "The Whyfore," sums up the reason for the publication's existence:

"For the purpose of keeping all interested persons informed concerning highway development in this state it has been decided by this department to issue a news letter from time to time under the title Arizona Highways."

Some highlights include the completion of 1.1 miles of paving along the National Old Trails Highway through Flagstaff, the delay of the Benson-Vail road due to not having the necessary right of way, "satisfactory progress" on a 1-mile contract on the Superior-Miami Highway near the head of Pinto Creek and the opening of bids for paving 3 miles of highway from the eastern city limits of Phoenix to Tempe.

Fortunately for lovers of Arizona's scenery everywhere, the pamphlet would be spun off into magazine form starting in 1925. 

If you want to know about current projects across Arizona, you can find those on our website. But if you want to see how beautiful a scene drive through the state can be, we suggest subscribing to the current version of Arizona Highways.

You can learn more at ArizonaHighways.com.

 

Ever see a picture of friend in high school, and they sort of look the same but are also sort of unrecognizable?

That's how we are feeling about this picture taken by the Arizona Highway Department in 1966 and available through the Arizona State Library's digital image collection. Can you pinpoint where this was taken? Take a good long look, we'll give you a minute.

No peeking below. Got it? 

Well, how did you do? 

If you guessed this was a shot of Interstate 17, with Camelback Road closest to the camera, then you are right! Looking south, you also can see interchanges at Indian School and Thomas roads and then beyond. 

If you weren't able to place it right away, don't feel bad. It took some sleuthing on our part and finding that the mobile home park in the foreground still exists to identify this.

If you were to take a similar picture today (or take a screenshot of Google Maps, as the case may be) it might look something like this:

Like we said, sort of the same, but also sort of unrecognizable. But we can all hope that we will look as good in two pictures taken 53 years apart!

 

Today we are throwing back to the original tunnel that used to help drivers cross between Superior and Miami.

The 300-foot Claypool Tunnel opened in 1926 as part of the 21-mile "million dollar highway" that was major undertaking for the relatively new Arizona Highway Department. We wrote more about the tunnel and the highway in another blog post recently.

This photo of the tunnel was taken some time during the 1940s, so roughly 20 years (give or take) into the highway's operation. You'll notice a small plaque over the tunnel, though there's not enough resolution to read more than "Claypool Tunnel" on it.

The 1,200-foot Queen Creek Tunnel opened in 1952 and took the route of US 60 with it. But Claypool Tunnel was still active, just in a different way. During the cooler months it's a popular hiking destination in the Superior area. However, danger of falling rocks led to the tunnel itself being closed off earlier this year.

But if you have some time and feel like stretching your legs for a few miles, you can still get close enough to see this early feat of highway engineering for yourself.

Today we are throwing back to Feb. 11, 1983, and a milestone for US 60 (Superstition Freeway), a main link between the East Valley and Phoenix.

As you can clearly see in this photo, that's the day when the 2-mile segment between Gilbert Road and Val Vista Drive in Mesa officially opened. According to the March 1983 edition of Newsbeat, ADOT's employee newsletter at the time, about a hundred people attended the ribbon-cutting for this expansion of the freeway.

The Newsbeat article also tells us that the guy holding up the large "Accelerating Toward Completion..." sign is Larry Hecker, who was the chair of the State Transportation Board. The person holding the camera labeled "eyewitness news" is from KTVK/Channel 3. And the person in the Phoenix International Raceway official race car? Believe it or not, that's former Governor Bruce Babbitt behind the wheel.

Though it was without a doubt an exciting moment, the freeway had to come a long way before then and still had a long way to go after. The first part of the Superstition Freeway, then dubbed "AZ 360," had been completed between Interstate 10 and Mill Avenue in 1971. It would take four expansions and a decade to make it to Gilbert Road.

In 1991 the freeway would finally make it out to Apache Junction, where it hit US 60 coming from Superior. It was also around this time that the "AZ 360" label was discarded and US 60's official alignment moved to the Superstition Freeway instead of the Main Street/Apache Boulevard/Mill Avenue/Van Buren Street route it had traditionally taken through Mesa, Tempe and Phoenix.

But all that was still well in the future when this photo was taken, and for now we'll leave Governor Babbitt to his test drive of the Valley's newest freeway segment.

By David Rookhuyzen / ADOT Communications

What does ginger ale have to do with Arizona transportation history?

To answer that, we have to throw back; to June 14, 1929. That's the date, just a hair more than 90 years ago, when the Grand Canyon Bridge – today known as the Navajo Bridge along US Route 89A – was dedicated. We know the photo above says 1930, but that's a mistake.

Believe or not, but at the time this was the only bridge over the Colorado River along a 600-mile stretch of the river between its confluence with the Green River in Utah and Topock Gorge (north of Lake Havasu City) in Arizona.

Before construction, all travel usually went over Lee's Ferry at the bottom of Marble Canyon. But with the invention and proliferation of the automobile, a more suitable way of getting over the river was needed. A bridge at Marble Canyon was first conceived by the Arizona Highway Department in 1923.

Though actually completed and taking traffic in January 1929, the ribbon-cutting for the bridge was a boisterous affair complete with speeches from Heber J. Grant, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as the governors of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah; bands, choral groups and Native American dancers; and nearly 7,000 spectators in more than 1,200 automobiles.

And – to answer our own question – the bridge was reportedly christened with a bottle of ginger ale because Prohibition was still in effect at the time.

The structure still exists today, though it's been a pedestrian bridge since 1995, when a new vehicle bridge was built 150 feet downstream to handle modern vehicles that are wider and heavier.

We've done blog posts about the bridge before, including this before-and-after view. And, if you are interested, you can also find a more detailed history of this important structure from the National Park Service. And maybe think about popping open a can of ginger ale as you read to get a taste of what the dedication was like.

By Garin Groff / ADOT Communications

When you think of something as substantial as a freeway, it might seem like it was always meant to be just as it is.

It turns out highway plans aren’t always set in concrete.

That’s especially the case with Interstate 10 just north of downtown Phoenix. That’s where the Papago Freeway vanishes below the Margaret T. Hance Deck Park for several blocks near Central Avenue.

The subterranean design that 230,000 motorists take for granted on a daily basis was only the last of several concepts that included a freeway 100 feet above Phoenix. For drivers to leave this highway, they’d spiral down through a “helicoil” that would have drivers making a 270-degree spiral turn to eventually connect with Third Avenue, Fifth Avenue or Third Street.

The plan was developed in late 1960s and early 1970s by the Arizona Highway Department, precursor to ADOT. The helicoil concept (as pictured at right from a 1966 pamphlet and featured as a throwback below in a video about modern freeway planning) followed other ideas and potential freeway routes dating to at least 1959, as a rapidly growing Phoenix weighed options for an east-west highway near downtown.

As soaring as the helicoil concept was, it didn’t take flight. Voters shot down the idea.

The tunnel plan came about in the early 1980s, with the idea of having a park span the freeway to connect historic neighborhoods on either side of I-10. While we call it a tunnel, it’s actually 19 side-by-side bridges that stretch for 2,887 feet and support a section of the 30-acre Deck Park.

The $75 million tunnel and an adjacent section of I-10 opened to traffic in 1990, completing the freeway in Arizona. The segment also marked the completion of the coast-to-coast freeway, which stretches nearly 2,500 miles from Jacksonville, Florida, to Santa Monica, California.

By David Rookhuyzen / ADOT Communications

For many, State Route 88 is a way to get out of the Valley and enjoy at day at Canyon Lake. For some, it's a winding route to adventure.

This curving route, also known as Apache Trail, hides an impressive story and is designated as a historic road. It was one of the original 10 state highways and played a vital role in the completion of Roosevelt Dam and, with it, making it possible for the Phoenix area to grow.

At the turn of the 20th century, Valley residents were looking to better harness the Salt River and cut down on flooding. Some lobbying to Congress resulted in the decision to build a dam at the river’s confluence with Tonto Creek northeast of Mesa.

SR 88 was blazed in 1904 to help carry workers and 1.5 million pounds of freight from Mesa up to the future Roosevelt Dam, which was completed in 1911. The initial cost was a little over a half a million dollars. The road would be partially rerouted a decade later when the Mormon Flat Dam was completed in 1925, forming Canyon Lake. The highway came under the auspices of the Arizona State Highway Department in 1927 and was declared an Arizona Historic Road in 1987.

The highway is still an important route for travelers, which is why last year we spent $6.5 million on a project to improve the road. You can see the results in the video below.

So whether you just want to get to Canyon Lake or see a piece of Arizona history, SR 88 is waiting for you.

By Angela De Welles / ADOT Communications

We can only imagine what the men in these photographs must have said on Nov. 10, 1964, at the dedication ceremony for a portion of Interstate 17, also known as the Black Canyon Freeway...

They might have remarked how Arizona was in the middle of a population boom. According to the Arizona Transportation History report, the state’s population “grew from 750,000 in 1950 to 1.3 million in 1960 and then to 1.8 million in 1970, an increase of more than a million residents in only two decades.”

They might also have spoken of their hopes for this new stretch of road and how a versatile transportation system can help transform an area’s economy and quality of life for residents.

Maybe they even guessed at the future and envisioned the numerous routes Arizona motorists can drive on today.

While we don’t know for sure what they said, we do have some insight into how plans for the Black Canyon Freeway developed over the years. Here’s an excerpt from the Arizona Transportation History report that gives more details:

“Phoenix’s freeway system began in 1950, with the Black Canyon Freeway, a joint city-state effort designed to relieve rush-hour congestion in Phoenix and also to increase the capacity of State Routes 69 and 79, which connected the Salt River Valley to the Verde Valley and Flagstaff. By modern standards, the Black Canyon Freeway was a modest undertaking: a four-lane controlled access highway (the state’s first) that began west of downtown and ran north for a few miles before merging back into the city’s arterial street network. Its premiere feature was the state’s first freeway interchange, which was built at Grand Avenue and completed by 1957.

“By the time the Grand Avenue interchange had opened, the Interstate highway system was being planned by the federal government, offering Phoenix officials new resources that could be used to significantly expand their new freeway system. The Black Canyon was designated part of Interstate 17, which was planned to connect Phoenix with Flagstaff, and plans were announced for a second freeway, the Maricopa Freeway, which would become part of Interstate 10 between Phoenix and southern Arizona.

“Work began on the Maricopa Freeway in 1958, and soon contracts for both new freeways were being issued on a regular basis. By 1961, more than six miles of the Black Canyon were open to traffic, from McDowell Road to Northern Avenue, and work was proceeding at a rapid pace. In late 1964, the combined Black Canyon–Maricopa freeway was dedicated from 16th Street to just north of the Carefree Highway. At a cost of $33.5 million for 30 miles of roadway—more than a $1 million per mile—it was by far the most expensive highway built in Arizona up to that time.”

So much has changed since 1964, but I-17 is still here, giving motorists a way to get around the state.