Days of yore, holiday drives to grandma’s house and Arizona highways are among the topics that Dolan Ellis, Arizona’s official State Balladeer, has captured in his songs about the state.  

“Historians write the history, but balladeers bring it to life,” Dolan said during a visit to ADOT, when the agency’s Video Team recorded his rich baritone as he performed three of his ballads, "Scrubby," "Rock Springs" and "I-10 Highway."

Two of these songs have ties to the holiday season, making this a good time to revisit and share Ellis' melodies.

“Scrubby”

While we’re not certain of Scrubby’s condition these days, for more than three decades, the cedar tree in the median of Interstate 17 at Sunset Point has thrilled passersby with holiday finery secretly applied in the middle of the night. With its glowing lights, ornaments and tinsel, it has become a shining beacon of seasonal spirit for motorists.

Perhaps no Arizonan has captured this mystery better than Ellis in this ode to an evergreen. It begins:

Out in Arizona there’s a story to be told. 
Of Scrubby, the little cedar tree, that grows beside the road. 
I-17 to Flagstaff, from the desert down below, 
And a random act of kindness by some secret, caring soul. 

It brings a smile to every face that passes by that sight. 
Scrubby becomes a rock star, and for him this song I write. 

 “Rock Springs” 

In the mid-1950s, it could take eight hours to travel by car from Flagstaff to Phoenix. This song, written by Dean Cook, Lon Austin, and Tony Norris, is about family’s holiday trip to Phoenix, with the children, the dog and grandma's tree in the back – before Interstate 17 Black Canyon Freeway was completed in 1978. 

"Rock Springs" tells of a meandering route through Oak Creek Canyon, the Cleopatra Mine, Mayer and Bumble Bee. Much of this was along the Old Black Canyon Highway, scratched out of the 1878 Black Canyon stagecoach trail. It begins:  

It was snowing up in Flagstaff but we knew that the desert would be hot. 
So we crawled beneath the blankets. The dog always got the warmest spot, woof woof. 
It was 2 days to Christmas and we crawled into the back of dad’s old truck. 
Eight hours down to Phoenix -- if we didn’t run out of water, tires or luck. 

“I-10 Highway”

This song is a nostalgic journey, as Ellis recalls a trip along Interstate 10 to Tucson, where he passes farmers and reminisces about a sense of community and purpose. He also waxes historic about the instantly-recognizable Picacho Peak. 

It begins: 

Arizona I-10 Highway, there’s a trucker going my way, play a tune in the afternoon with a guitar that I carry on my back. 
I can see the sign to Tucson, from the freeway that I ride on, telling me all the sights to see down in Tucson, that are long gone with each puff from a diesel stack. 
As I pass the irrigation roads (and) crops some Pima farmer grows, folks flipping by like the pages of a worn-out history book. 
And the story that it seems to tell the pride of his work in a job done well and the cooperation of a reservation full of neighbors and the labors of his people (that it took).  

Ellis has been writing and performing songs about Arizona, its people, heritage, culture, wildlife and beauty, since 1959. Learn more about the State Balladeer, by reading these blog posts: 

Arizona's official balladeer celebrates I-17 Mystery Tree

State balladeer croons nostalgic over 'I-10 Highway'

State balladeer sings of drive from Flagstaff

Learn more about Ellis, his performance schedule, history and songs at DolanEllis.com. You can also learn about the Arizona Folklore Preserve in Ramsey Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains, which Ellis founded to preserve songs celebrating Arizona’s western heritage and culture, at ArizonaFolklore.com. 

Whether you pronounced it “gif” or “jif,” like the peanut butter, almost everyone has seen one. They’re often used for memes or as a way to show how you’re feeling on social media.

Here at ADOT, we love a good gif and wanted to share ADOT gifs with you. Our ADOT Giphy channel went live in mid-July and already has 1.6 million views.

We’re continuing to add to it, but so far our most popular gifs are the ones for dust storms and monsoons. No surprise since it happens to be monsoon season.

Right now our gifs are designed to be used as Instagram story stickers. You can find them by searching “ArizonaDOT” on Instagram or visit our verified Giphy channel at giphy.com/ArizonaDOT. We also have video instructions on how to find and use stickers our Instagram highlight named “Stickers.” If you have any gif ideas for us, please share them with us on social media.

Join us and spread safety messages like #PullAsideStayAlive and just share your love of our state with #AZAwesome.

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

Litter is no joke.

Even putting aesthetics and environmental impacts aside, junk tossed from vehicles can create a hazard on the roadway and other trouble that you can't see.

That's something our crews know all too well as they work to ensure all 59 pump stations and other freeway drainage systems in the Valley are ready for storm runoff. As we've told you about before, litter can get swept into pump stations and potentially clog grates and hinder the flow of water.

Keeping our freeway drainage systems clear is a year-round effort, and powerful storms this past winter proved how important it is to have clean and maintained pump stations and drainage catch basins throughout the year.

You can see crews in action using this equipment in the video above. But we hope you'll also see that, even with the hydrovac, it's still a laborious task.

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 David Rookhuyzen / ADOT Communications

The state budget approved by state lawmakers and signed by Governor Doug Ducey provides a $130 million needed to complete widening I-17 north of Anthem, in addition to where the flex lanes have already been planned between Black Canyon City and Sunset Point.

ADOT has been working to advance projects to improve traffic flow and safety along 23 miles of I-17 between Anthem and Sunset Point north of Phoenix. More than $190 million was already committed to building flex lanes north of Black Canyon City as well as adding 7 miles of a third southbound lane directly south of that project.

Investing an additional $130 million over three years will allow ADOT to complete all sections of new third lanes between Anthem and Black Canyon City. Combined with the flex lanes, this increased capacity will enhance safety and help address traffic flow challenges and backups that occur due to crashes and when many drivers are traveling to or from Arizona’s high country on summer weekends.

You can see a visualization of the project and how the flex lanes will operate in the video above.

By John Halikowski / ADOT Director

To paraphrase a popular song from 1973 by The Platters, don’t let dust get in your eyes. It is that time of year when we Arizonans brace for our monsoon storms. These storms bring awesome lightning shows, but also winds that can kick up dust from the desert floor and blanket an area so thick, you can’t see in front of you. I would like to remind everyone, residents and visitors, that it is incredibly dangerous to drive into a dust storm.

At ADOT, we have photos and videos showing the gritty and grisly aftermath of collisions that occurred in dust storms. Our award-winning safety campaign, “Pull Aside, Stay Alive,” reminds motorists how they can stay safe if they get caught in a dust storm. The most important thing: Never drive into a dust storm.

I would also encourage you to share these important safety tips with family and friends who are planning to visit our great state this summer. You can also share our FocusOnDriving.com website for other helpful driving tips that will ensure your family and friends stay safe on our roadways.

Whether you like listening to “Dust in the Wind” by the band Kansas or “Sandstorm” by Darude, it’s important to be prepared and to drive safely this summer and avoid driving through dust storms. You can even stream the Dust Storm Playlist we created on Spotify as you travel this summer.

This post originally appeared on ADOT Director John Halikowski's
LinkedIn page. He has led the agency since 2009.

By David Rookhuyzen / ADOT Communications

How do you start rebuilding two interchanges on a busy metropolitan interstate? From the ground up, of course.

Drivers on Interstate 17 north of the Loop 101 can't have failed to notice the work being done in the median and the shoulder at Pinnacle Peak and Happy Valley roads. Crews have been hard at work since November on this project, but it's only in the past month and a half, following utility, underground pipe and box culvert work, that they've started getting the project vertical.

As you can see in the video above and the photo slideshow below, both featuring work at Pinnacle Peak Road, we are making progress erecting bridge abutments and piers to eventually hold the girders for bridge decks at these new interchanges.

Once the piers are ready, we'll schedule closures of I-17 to put the new girders into place. But before all that happens, take a look at how the project is going so far.

You can learn more about the project at its page on our website.

By Steve Elliott / ADOT Communications

A year ago, I shared how I'd spent more free time than I should developing playlists of songs related to transportation: one for my phone and one on Spotify that everyone can enjoy.

Well, I'm still at it. AZ Transportation Tunes, posted by our Spotify account at ArizonaDOT, is approaching 100 songs that celebrate or at least mention ways we get around. You can follow this link to sample it, but the full experience requires a free Spotify account.

So what's new to the list since I last shared this hobby of mine? For me, the highlights include Dolly Parton taking a "Highway Headin' South," Patsy Cline strolling down "Lonely Street" and Dionne Warwick sharing mixed feelings about "Trains and Boats and Planes," shown at right. There also are some great covers, such as Shawn Colvin singing "Lodi," The Cheetah Girls' live concert version of "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" and Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott's "Car Wash" mix from the movie "Shark Tale." With apologies to the Soul Survivors, I'd much rather listen to Margo Thunder's funk-infused rendition of "Expressway to Your Heart."

I've used the past year to address the playlist's deficit in songs about trucks. Del Reeves is "Looking at the World Through a Windshield," while New Riders of the Purple Sage offer one of many memorable versions of "Truck Drivin' Man." Minnie Pearl and Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen tug at the heartstrings with "Giddyup Go Answer" and "Mama Hated Diesels," respectively. And how had I missed "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" by Kathy Mattea (at right)? Meanwhile, Jerry Reed's "East Bound and Down" from the movie "Smokey and the Bandit" made my personal list but not ADOT's given its focus on a certain adult beverage.

There's a category I call "Amazing discoveries one makes when Googling 'songs about cars/boats/trucks/planes/trains/etc.'" That yielded Dinah Washington's rendition of "Red Sails in the Sunset" and Alison Krauss' "Endless Highway," among other great songs.

Then there's a category I call, "How did I forget that song?" With an eye toward infrastructure, a coworker noted the omission of the Yes hit "Roundabout" (which requires an investment of more than 8 minutes, by the way). No road trip or movie montage would be complete without Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty" (at right). To my shame, I'd left out Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" and The Who's "Magic Bus." I'd also forgotten "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Night and the Pips.

If your data plan and vehicle sound system are better than mine, you might want to consider trying out our playlist during your summer travels. You could wind up "Rockin' Down the Highway," "Swinging Down the Lane" or "Walking in the Rain,"