US 160

ADOT improving safety along US 160 through new street lighting near Tuba City

ADOT improving safety along US 160 through new street lighting near Tuba City

I-17 101 traffic interchange

ADOT improving safety along US 160 through new street lighting near Tuba City

ADOT improving safety along US 160 through new street lighting near Tuba City

March 11, 2021

PHOENIX – The Arizona Department of Transportation is busy installing new street lights along US 160 just east of Tuba City improving the safety of the road by increasing visibility at night.

The $700,000 project is adding 43 light poles extending the existing roadway lighting nearly 2 miles.

Street lighting improves visibility and safety while driving at night. According to a 2014 case study by the Federal Highway Administration, street lighting at rural intersections can reduce overall nighttime crashes by up to 40% and nighttime injury crashes by up to 25%.

The project, which began in late January, is anticipated to be complete by the end of May. After the completion of the project, the area will be reseeded to encourage vegetation growth.

For more information, visit azdot.gov/projects

Highways in northeastern Arizona honor Native American veterans

Highways in northeastern Arizona honor Native American veterans

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Highways in northeastern Arizona honor Native American veterans

Highways in northeastern Arizona honor Native American veterans

By David Rookhuyzen / ADOT Communications
November 11, 2020

Street View images © 2020 Google. Clockwise from top left: US 89 NB near Cameron, US 160 EB near Kayenta, SR 264 near Second Mesa, and SR 264 WB near Ganado.

Veterans Day has been a federally observed holiday since 1954, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower renamed it and expanded its observance from the earlier World War I-focused Armistice Day to a larger acknowledgement of all those who have fought in the U.S. Armed Services. 

"In order to insure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary, all veterans, all veterans' organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose," Eisenhower wrote in his first Veterans Day Proclamation.

We heartily agree with that sentiment, which is why several years back we highlighted how more highways than you might think are named to honor veterans.

But since we wrote that, a few more highways in northern Arizona have been added to the list, but with a more specific – and appropriate – focus.

In 2019, a joint resolution of the Arizona State Senate named portions of US 89, State Route 264 and US 160 to honor the Native American veterans who have served so ably in the miltiary. The resolution provided those highways be renamed as follows:

  • US 89 between Flagstaff and the Utah state line is designated the "Native American Veterans Highway."
  • The portion of State Route 264 that runs through the Navajo Reservation is designated the "Navajo Code Talker Highway," while the portion on the Hopi Reservation is designated the "Hopi Code Talker Highway."
  • US 160 between the junction with US 89 and the New Mexico state line is designated "Native American Women Veterans Highway."

The resolution provides ample reasons for naming these highways for Native American veterans including:

  • "Native Americans have served in wars involving the United States from Valley Forge to the hostilities in Afghanistan and Iraq; and ... with the highest record of military service of any group in the United States."
  • "Navajo Marine Corps radio operators, who became known as as the 'Navajo Code Talkers,' developed an unbreakable code using their nation's language to communicate military messages."
  • "Ten Hopi men developed a code language that they used to assist United States army intelligence in the Marshall Islands, New Caledonia and the Philippines during World War II."
  • "Fourteen Native American women served in the Army Nurse Corps during World War I ... 800 Native American women served in the military from 1941 to 1945; and ... nearly 3,900 among 1.4 million active duty military are Native American women."

Whereever you are this Veterans Day, we hope you are remembering those who served. But if you happen to be in the area of Page, Tuba City, First Mesa, Ganado or otherwise on the state highway system in northeastern Arizona, this is a good time to remember how Native Americans have contributed to the country's military history. 

ADOT, USGS partnership is a model for sustainable transportation solutions

ADOT, USGS partnership is a model for sustainable transportation solutions

I-17 101 traffic interchange

ADOT, USGS partnership is a model for sustainable transportation solutions

ADOT, USGS partnership is a model for sustainable transportation solutions

July 1, 2020

PHOENIX – A partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Arizona Water Science Center is helping Arizona Department of Transportation engineers anticipate the effects of extreme weather on bridges and highways and design ways to handle it. 

Since its start in 2014, this collaboration has evolved to improve ADOT's use data involving flooding, natural hazards and weather-related risks through the agency's Resilience Program. 

“With U.S. Geological Survey's expertise in water science and hydrology, ADOT can now use these data to construct and maintain bridges and roadways that better reflects how the natural environment and highway infrastructure interact,” said Steven Olmsted, program manager with ADOT Environmental Planning. “These data have already made a difference on numerous ADOT projects.”

An example of this partnership is 2017 improvements to US 160 bridge spanning Laguna Creek on the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona. The project, which won an award from Arizona State University’s Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering, used data on the volume and velocity of the creek's flow to anticipate how the channel will change. 

The resulting project protected the bridge's abutments by using gabion baskets, which are metal cages filled with rocks, to reduce meandering where the creek passes under US 160.

According to USGS Arizona Water Science Center hydrologist Brandon Forbes, “this partnership has also established a successful framework for collaboration between USGS and State DOTs, and is being adopted by many other USGS offices across the country.”

ADOT’s goal is to develop an end-to-end engineering-based process that will incorporate extreme weather and climate adaptation into the design of highway and bridge projects.

Highway History: From Navajo Route 1 to US 160

Highway History: From Navajo Route 1 to US 160

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Highway History: From Navajo Route 1 to US 160

Highway History: From Navajo Route 1 to US 160

By David Rookhuyzen / ADOT Communications
January 28, 2020

Let's take a trip to Four Corners.

Sounds simple enough, right? All you need is some gas in the car, a GPS, maybe some road trip music and snacks, and you are good to go. More than likely we'll be cruising down the entire length of US 160 to get there.

But if we went back in time 60 years, the act of the Arizona Highway Department getting someone to the Four Corners involved congressional funding, multiple contracts and some convoluted highway numbering. 

At that time, there was no US 160 in Arizona. That highway ran through Colorado and ended at Crescent Junction in Utah. But in late 1958, Congress approved funding for "Navajo Route 1," which would extend from US 89 north of Flagstaff, through Tuba City and then head northeast. A news release from the Bureau of Indian Affairs dated July 3, 1959, announced that the C. R. Davis Contracting Co. of Albuquerque, New Mexico, had won a $393,202 contract to build 9 miles heading northeast from Tuba City.

"This nine-mile section is the first project on Navajo Route 1 to be constructed [f]or immediate takeover by the State of Arizona after the Bureau of Indian Affairs contract is complete," the release says.

Another release in December 1960 touts the contract for another 10-mile stretch being added to the road, which would make "a total of approximately 70 miles of paved highway from US 89 north of Flagstaff, extending northeast through Tuba City toward Kayenta."

Westbound terminus of US 160
By 1962, the state and local businesses celebrated the opening of the so-called "Navajo Trail" connecting Flagstaff with Tuba City, Kayenta and the Four Corners region. The dedication of the road, which now ran all the way to Cortez, Colorado, coincided with the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs pouring an elevated concrete pad around the 1931 brass marker at the Four Corners Monument. 

Our exhaustive 2011 report, Arizona Transportation History, points out that the route "was built not just to facilitate tourism, but also to improve access to oil, coal, and uranium deposits then being developed on the Navajo Indian Reservation."

After becoming part of the state highway system, the road was not designated as US 160, which still went into Utah, but US 164. However, that designation would only last until 1970, when a  realignment of highway numberings in the greater Four Corners area took place. The US 160 designation was routed southwestward through Colorado and into Arizona on the relatively new road, eliminating the US 164 numbering and setting the new westerward terminus of US 160 at US 89 west of Tuba City.

So ... that helped pass a few minutes of our trip. What do you want to do now? Maybe play the license plate game?

ADOT bridge project on US 160 receives ASU Sustainable Infrastructure Award

ADOT bridge project on US 160 receives ASU Sustainable Infrastructure Award

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ADOT bridge project on US 160 receives ASU Sustainable Infrastructure Award

ADOT bridge project on US 160 receives ASU Sustainable Infrastructure Award

July 8, 2019

PHOENIX ‒ The Arizona Department of Transportation has won an award for using cutting-edge data collection and modeling for a US 160 bridge project that created a sustainable, resilient solution to erosion from a meandering creek on the Navajo Nation.

Arizona State University’s Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering selected ADOT’s Laguna Creek Bridge improvement as one the recipients of its 2019 Sustainable Infrastructure Awards. Faculty reviewed nominations from public, private, nonprofit and academic organizations on innovative approaches that advance sustainability in infrastructure.

ADOT’s 2017 project about 25 miles east of Kayenta addressed severe scouring of the Laguna Creek Bridge’s abutments, protected the creek banks and reduced the channel’s meandering at the bridge. To accomplish this, engineers installed gabion baskets, which are metal cages filled with rocks.

While engineers designing similar improvements needed in short time frames often have limited data on matters such as stream flows, ADOT, coordinating with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Arizona Water Science group, made the Laguna Creek Bridge a pilot site to test next-generation monitoring technologies. These include sensors and gauges providing real-time surface flow data during and after storms, drones, video cameras, laser-aided surveying and 3-D surface modeling.

Collecting this data for a year prior to construction provided a comprehensive view of the creek’s flow and velocity, allowing engineers to compare the current channel with a time-lapse view of how it has changed over time and anticipate what will happen in the future. The instruments continue to provide data that will help engineers assess the effectiveness of work to stabilize the banks where US 160 crosses Laguna Creek and determine whether additional improvements may be needed.

“Beyond the Laguna Creek Bridge project, integrating this approach with ADOT’s design and operation of highway infrastructure will help enhance sustainability and resilience by looking at historic, current and potential conditions, including the impacts of extreme weather,” said Steven Olmsted, National Environmental Policy Act assignment manager with ADOT Environmental Planning.

Meanwhile, the technology helped engineers design a project that avoided disturbing a culturally significant site near the Laguna Creek Bridge.

ASU’s Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, seeks through research, teaching, outreach and public service to provide a basis for understanding how engineered and built systems are integrated with natural and human systems. To learn more, please visit metis.asu.edu.

For more information on ADOT’s sustainable transportation initiatives, please visit azdot.gov/SustainableTransportation.

ADOT replacing US 160 Chinle Wash bridge on Navajo Nation

ADOT replacing US 160 Chinle Wash bridge on Navajo Nation

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ADOT replacing US 160 Chinle Wash bridge on Navajo Nation

ADOT replacing US 160 Chinle Wash bridge on Navajo Nation

May 3, 2018

PHOENIX – A $6 million Arizona Department of Transportation project starting Monday, May 7, is creating a new US 160 bridge at Chinle Wash in far northeastern Arizona.

Those using US 160 through the area should expect delays up to 20 minutes with this work underway at milepost 429, just west of Mexican Water on the Navajo Nation. A temporary traffic signal will have traffic alternating through one lane on the existing bridge.

The new three-span bridge will be 280 feet long and nearly 9 feet wider than the current bridge. The project, which scheduled to finish by year’s end, also will realign the roadway and install new pavement markings, among other improvements.

For more information on this and other projects, visit azdot.gov/Projects (see Northeast District Projects).