If you’ve driven from Superior to Top-of-the-World on US 60, you’ll certainly remember the jagged rock formations and stunning views as the highway curves and climbs to higher and greener terrain.

But if you’ve driven the scenic highway in the last couple years, you’ve likely also remembered how rough the pavement had become. Thankfully, that’s one aspect of the highway that will now be only a memory.

We’re happy to share the news that crews have recently completed repaving the driving lanes on about 9 miles of US 60, milling away the bumpy asphalt so two new layers of pavement can provide a smooth driving surface for years to come.

The roughly six weeks of paving led to some long delays and ADOT thanks drivers for their patience while crews worked to improve the highway. While drivers can expect periodic lane restrictions and delays to continue through late September, we anticipate delays will be limited to 15 minutes or less.

The restrictions are needed while crews work on final lane striping, rumble strips, guardrail and concrete barriers. Keep an eye out for reduced speed limits and flaggers directing traffic.

While we know nobody likes delays, you’ll be able to soak in the great scenery along US 60 – and enjoy the smoother ride.

Highway construction is and has been labor-intensive, but after we found this photo we couldn't be happier to be living in our modern, mechanized age.

Because these folks here driving the livestock are not farmers out plowing a field. They are actually Arizona Highway Department crews in the process of grading a highway. US 60 between Salome and Aguila, to be exact. This mule-driven photo is from Dec. 7, 1933.

As you might know, grading is the process of smoothing the base layer of a road to remove divots, washboards and other high or low points. For dirt roads, such as this stretch of US 60 (which would also be co-signed with US 70 for a time), grading is basically all the roadwork and maintenance that is done. Today construction crews have grading machines for this type of work. We can only imagine those machines are a bit more reliable than the mules and produce less ... um ... waste.

The year this photo was snapped is significant because it was actually a bit of turning point for highway construction in Arizona. According to our report on the state's transporation history, that year the federal Public Works Administration gave Arizona $5.2 million for road projects, which covered hundreds of miles of grading and draining, oiling, sealing and paving, along with bridge construction, shoulder-widening and railroad-crossing construction.

By 1933, Arizona was also the leading state in the West when it came to oiling, or spraying "low-type bituminous surfacing" on, gravel roads. At the start of the year, more than 1,000 miles of state highways had been oiled, and when State Route 87 in Chandler was surfaced, for the first time a person could drive between Phoenix and Tucson without driving on a single stretch of a gravel road. At the end of 1933, the state reported that all its highways, with limited exceptions, had been oiled or actually paved.

That's all fascianting for us, but it most likely meant little to our mule-driving friends here, who were probably just happy if their stubborn charges kept the grader moving.

Driving along US 60 at Pinto Creek, motorists see heavy equipment carving a road out of the rocky terrain at what might seem like a slow pace.

But when the highway is closed to the public, progress comes in bursts.

Just take a look at how quickly explosives dislodge rock in this video captured by ADOT’s video team. The blasting is the most dramatic part of a two-year project to replace the Pinto Creek Bridge, which requires carving an access road into the canyon so crews construct bridge piers.

The blasting has been underway for several weeks, when crews close the highway twice a week between Superior and Miami to keep the public at a safe distance. Blasting will continue Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., into December.

The explosives are used on rock that’s too hard to be removed by earthmoving equipment. But construction also occurs on weekdays, when crews remove softer rock, continue building the access road and prepare for the next blasting operation.

Drivers in the area should expect lane restrictions and allow for extra travel time. Keep up to date on scheduled restrictions or closures at azdot.gov/PintoCreekBridge.

Signs installed by the Arizona Department of Transportation now mark two sections of US 60 between Globe and Apache Junction as Governor Rose Mofford Memorial Highway, carrying a designation recently approved by the Arizona State Board on Geographic and Historic Names.

The designation applies between mileposts 250 and 240.5, from Globe through Miami, and mileposts 200 through 214.5, from Apache Junction to just east of Florence Junction (State Route 79). Drivers in each direction of US 60 will see signs where each of the newly named stretches begins.

US 60 between mileposts 214.5 and 240.5 is already named Gila-Pinal Scenic Road.

Mofford, Arizona’s 18th governor and the first woman to serve in that post, was from Globe. In addition to serving as governor from 1988 to 1991, Mofford was Arizona’s secretary of state from 1977 to 1988.

The Arizona State Board on Geographic and Historic Names approved adding Mofford's name to the two US 60 stretches at its Jan. 22 meeting.

Other state highway stretches honoring individuals and groups include the Piestewa Freeway (State Route 51), Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway (Interstate 10), Buffalo Soldier Trail (State Route 90 in southeastern Arizona), Arizona Veterans Highway (Interstate 17), Purple Heart Trail (Interstate 40) and Veterans Memorial Highway (Interstate 15).

For more information on the Arizona State Board on Geographic and Historic Names, please visit the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records website at azlibrary.gov (Click About > Boards and  Commissions).

You can see lots of photos of these signs in this Flickr slideshow:

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.