Today, we’ve got an update for you on a project we first blogged about at the end of last year…

The project, located about three miles south of Flagstaff, involves the realignment of SR 89A and reconstruction of the southbound I-17/JW Powell Boulevard intersection.

Work has begun

Crews began construction of new alignments of SR 89A, and southbound on- and off-ramps at JW Powell Boulevard near Fort Tuthill County Park and Flagstaff-Pulliam Airport on June 2.

The project will also include the construction of roundabouts at the entrance to the park and the southbound I-17 ramps. The roundabouts will help facilitate the safer flow of traffic through the area, and will be designed to meet current and future traffic demand. Drivers can expect restrictions and lane closures throughout construction.

Project prep work happened last fall

Preparations for this project began last September when ADOT worked closely with Coconino County, the city of Flagstaff and the local utility company to remove trees to allow space for project construction while saving as many trees as possible (see video above). The area will be re-seeded with native vegetation once the project is complete.

The project is anticipated to be complete by summer 2015.

For more information, please visit the project webpage, or check out our previous post.

Wildfire season has (unfortunately) already arrived and while we can’t control the winds, heat or dry conditions that impact much of our state, we can all take some simple steps to stop fires from even starting…

One Less Spark, One Less Wildfire

ADOT is participating in an interagency campaign that focuses on those steps and communicates the role that drivers and homeowners play in helping to prevent wildfires.

The “One Less Spark, One Less Wildfire” awareness campaign was started by the U.S. Forest Service and other land management agencies in California in 2012.

It is now expanding to the southwest region and, as you can see in the video above, ADOT and several other local agencies recently joined together for an event aimed at sharing the message.

Everyone has the responsibility to prevent human-caused wildfires. We encourage you to learn more by visiting wildlandfire.az.gov and by obeying these tips:

• Do not park in tall grass as the heat from parts under your vehicle can start a fire.
• Make sure nothing is hanging from underneath your vehicle and dragging on the asphalt.
• Dragging chains from towing can cause sparks. Never substitute parts when towing.
• Check tire pressure before you travel. Exposed wheel rims can cause sparks on the asphalt.

When you take on a big home-improvement project, there’s a lot of coordinating and organization that has to happen before you can even get started.

Let’s say you’re building a gazebo in your backyard. First, you’ll probably want to check with the city to see if you need a permit. Then, if there’s going to be any digging involved, you’ll have to notify Arizona Blue Stake. Maybe you’ll be a good neighbor and let the people next door know that you’re going to be making a lot of noise for the next couple of afternoons.

When ADOT takes on a project there’s so much more involved (not that we’re saying your gazebo project is easy!). We’ve blogged about ADOT’s extensive planning before, but today we have a specific type of plan to tell you about called a Transportation Management Plan (TMP).

To help us better explain, we’ll go back to the gazebo project for just a second...

Basically, a TMP is a much more formal version of you going to your neighbors and letting them know what’s going on. Except, in ADOT’s case, the neighbors play a very important role. The “neighbors” are the impacted municipalities, officials and emergency responders.

The TMP spells out the strategies and methods that will be implemented during the project to ensure a safe work zone. The plan also is intended to minimize impacts to drivers.

Here’s an even better explanation pulled directly from a TMP: “(A TMP’s) current role is to assist in the development of the design of construction phasing plans, traffic control plans and project specification document, and to facilitate discussions between ADOT, local governments and other key stakeholders. Key topics of the TMP include communication contacts, work zone impacts, schedules, detours, incident management, strategies and public outreach.”

You can see in the video above why a plan is so important. While the video details the planning that has gone on ahead of the I-15 project, we want to point out that all ADOT projects (big and small) get a TMP.

For more on how ADOT plans ahead, revisit some of our previous posts.

Remember last weekend when I-10 was closed through downtown Phoenix for an APS power line project?

Even though it wasn’t shut down for an ADOT project, we did take advantage of having a totally empty freeway by getting some chores done, including cleaning the Deck Park Tunnel and installing some new freeway signs.

This particular installation (on I-10 at the 12th Street overpass), shown above, took just eight hours.

While the video speaks for itself, we do want to point out a few things…

• The new signs are coated with highly reflective, prismatic sheeting. Because of that, the sign requires no electrical lighting (that’s a cost savings!).
• You’ll notice that the “old” signs had a bit of graffiti painted on them, which is why the new signs have graffiti shields. Graffiti shields are intended to prevent someone from reaching over to spray graffiti on the signs – the two-foot shield extensions make it nearly impossible. Graffiti is no small matter. Besides often being an eyesore, the paint can affect a sign’s readability by obstructing the text and by damaging the sign’s reflective coating.
• While it may not look like it, the new sign is really big. The sign (we’re talking about both of the green panels) measure in at 16 feet high x 56 feet wide!

For more about ADOT signs, including a look inside the sign shop, check out our previous blog posts.

You may think that when it comes to maintaining roads, ADOT’s sole focus is on the surface you drive…

But we also pay attention to the areas adjacent to the road and shoulder, sometimes referred to as the recovery zone (basically, it’s the area beyond the edge of the road that gives drivers a place to stop or regain control of a vehicle that leaves the road).

ADOT maintenance crews make sure the area is free of trees and brush for a number of reasons, which we’ll get to in a minute, but first we want to tell you a little about the tool that helps keep the recovery zone clear.

As you can see in the video above, a boom axe is used by ADOT crews to cut trees and brush. The boom axe, with its long “arm” and spinning blade allows crews to cut down trees and brush without leaving the roadway. This helps when they’re clearing areas behind guardrails and other safety features. The boom axe, which is mounted to a tractor, is also capable of cutting larger diameter stems than a typical mower.

Using a boom axe to keep the ADOT right-of-way free of vegetation isn’t just for aesthetics – safety is the No. 1 reason we keep the area clear.

Crews maintain the recovery zones so errant vehicles do not collide with larger vegetation if they happen to leave the road.

It also helps increase sight distance – removing vegetation around curves and on the side of the road helps so drivers can see approaching wildlife and other hazards. Additionally, it can help reduce fire danger.

Finally, keeping the right-of-way clear of trees and brush allows our maintenance crews to pull their vehicles off the roadway safely to conduct other maintenance activities without affecting traffic – this is particularly important in areas without paved shoulders.

With more than 6,000 miles of highway to oversee and maintain, ADOT relies on its fleet of trusty vehicles to help get the job done. We’re not referring to your everyday trucks and sedans – we are talking about heavy-duty equipment, designed and built to perform some enormous tasks.

Late last month, work to demolish the I-10 bridges over Perryville Road got underway in the west Valley and, as you can see above, things went pretty quickly.

Well, it wasn’t exactly as fast as the video depicts. Instead of 30 seconds, it actually took crews about two days to remove roughly 15,670 tons of material.

To allow for the construction of the new bridges over Perryville Road, I-10 traffic was switched last month to newly constructed detour routes along the paths of the future off- and on-ramps for the interchange.

The $18.8 million I-10/Perryville Road interchange project, which is located west of the future I-10/Loop 303 interchange in Goodyear, is scheduled for completion this fall.

Check out our previous blog posts for a look at some other memorable demos we’ve covered.

We’ve got a fascinating video to share with you today that shows the installation of a wildlife underpass on SR 86.

This particular underpass consists of 15 total pre-cast arches, each weighing in at about 22 tons (in case you’re wondering why you don’t see each of those 15 arches, the time-lapse video shows the installation of just one side of the underpass).

The precast arches were dropped into place, but not until quite a bit of work beforehand...

The underpass installation, which was also part of a widening project along SR 86, took place after crews constructed traffic detour, completed excavation and poured the footers and foundation.

If this video grabs your interest, you’ll want to stay tuned. Next week, we have a more in-depth video and blog post coming your way about wildlife crossings.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, by now you should know plenty about rubberized asphalt. We’ve covered what it is, why it’s used and the many benefits it offers. However, we’ve never before explained how it gets made … until today.

The process is really fascinating and, as you can see in the video above, it all starts with tires – lots and lots of tires.

First they’re taken to a facility where much of the wire is pulled out. Next, they get shredded and sent off to a cryogenic system that freezes the rubber to -300 F. The cold temperature gives the rubber glass-like properties, allowing it to be smashed into millions of pieces. From there, the remaining steel and fiber components of the tires are removed…vacuums and magnets are utilized in this step.

After all that, the crumb rubber is blended into a liquid product to create rubberized asphalt. That mixture, also called a binder, gets dried and blended with oil before being applied to the road.

More about rubberized asphalt

Roughly 1,500 tires are used for every lane-mile of rubberized paving. To give you an idea of what that means, on just one 10-mile, six-lane highway ADOT covers 60 “lane miles.” Multiply that by 1,500 old tires and that equals 90,000 old tires that have been recycled and re-used.

While the environmental benefit is significant, there are several reasons why ADOT uses rubberized asphalt, including its noise-reducing properties and its ability to resist cracking.

“When we started using asphalt rubber and started using the crumb rubber from the tires, we didn’t do it so much to recycle tires,” says Assistant State Engineer for Construction Julie Kliewer in the video above. “The material is a better material because of it because it helps resist not only cold-weather cracking, but the normal cracking that happens from the fatigue or the aging of the roadway. The bonus is that we’re taking those tires out of the waste stream.”

For more information on rubberized, visit ADOT’s Quiet Pavement Web page or check out our previous blog posts and videos.

Sometimes, it takes a simple solution to fix a complex problem…

That certainly was the case for ADOT when the agency set out to develop a better method for operating and cleaning its fleet of boot trucks.

Boot trucks, as ADOT Environmental Project Manager Nathan Carroll explains in the video above, are oil distributor trucks. The vehicles are used to spray sealer on the roadways to prevent deterioration and extend the life of the pavement.

The problem with the boot trucks had to do with that sealer/emulsion – a thick tarry substance that would get all over the back of the truck and clog up the spray nozzles. Crews weren’t able to operate the trucks without extensive maintenance and a cleanup process that lasted hours.

ADOT Equipment Services Administrator Devin Darlek explains in the video that a team of ADOT employees was asked to develop a solution.

“We tasked them with not only coming up with an idea to take care of the vehicles, but also something that would reduce our footprint on the environment, something that would save us money, save us time, be more safe, be more efficient,” Darlek says.

The team really delivered with an innovation that helps to reduce taxpayer costs, saves time and helps the environment.

Use of the new oil-spray guards helps prevent overspray from going on to the truck. Not only do the spray guards keep the truck clean, they also allow a greater concentration of the sealer onto the road.

Along with the spray guard, the team also designed and built catch basins as a better way to contain and dispose of the oil washed off the trucks. The oil residue is washed off the truck into the catch basin where it is then pumped into 55-gallon drums for proper disposal.

“It saves money, it saves the environment, it’s efficient,” says Darlek. “It’s not only saving now, it’s saving for the future. It’s not just a win-win. It’s a win-win-win-win-win-win. It just keeps going.”

You don’t often have the chance to walk, bike or skate on a highway…

But yesterday, many people did just that as ADOT and the city of Mesa hosted a celebration on the soon-to-be-opened Gateway Freeway (SR 24). The new one-mile stretch was the site of a ribbon-cutting ceremony and public “open house” (see slideshow above).

More about SR 24

You might remember that it was nearly two years ago when we told you about the start of construction on SR 24 and how the city of Mesa accelerated the start of construction by several years through a transportation bonding-program.

Now that the road is just about finished (ADOT plans to complete construction and open the freeway to motorists early next month), drivers soon will be able to use SR 24 to connect directly from the Loop 202 Santan Freeway to Ellsworth Road near Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. The new section will improve access to the nearby airport and other local businesses and housing developments.

At yesterday’s event, ADOT Director John Halikowski said future plans call for extending SR 24 when regional and state funding is available.

“It will connect to the proposed North-South transportation corridor currently being planned in Pinal County,” said Halikowski. “Ultimately, the freeway will link this region – its airport, businesses and communities – to the statewide highway system and what we call the Key Commerce Corridors. These are the routes that will help boost trade and job growth, ensuring Arizona’s seat at the table of the global economy.”

For more on SR 24, revisit some of our previous posts.