With roughly 240,000 vehicles driving through it each day, the I-10 Deck Park Tunnel needs the night off every once in a while for a good, thorough scrub!

Just about every four months, the tunnel is closed to traffic in order to allow crews the chance to wash the walls, maintain the ventilation systems and check on the tunnel’s 3,700 light fixtures (about 150-200 light bulbs are changed out each quarter!).

Crews typically complete the cleaning over two nights. That means only one side of the tunnel needs to be closed each night … leaving the other direction open to traffic.

Cleaning the white tile walls not only gives the tunnel a fresh look, but it also helps brighten things up a bit.

“We’re washing the walls and keeping them clean so the light bounces off the wall onto the deck so it makes a better drive through,” says ADOT Highway Operations Supervisor Ed Walsh in the video above.

A little history …

For anyone fairly new to the Valley, it might be hard to believe that the Deck Park Tunnel represents part of Interstate-10’s “final mile.”

It was 21 years ago this month that the tunnel was completed, closing up the last remaining gap in the 2,460-mile-long interstate that stretches across the country.

The project was a big one because the path of this final mile was in between two historic Phoenix neighborhoods.

Designers came up with an innovative plan to limit the impacts on the communities. Builders dug out the freeway’s path, put in the 10-lane roadway and covered up the top of the road with a deck made out of 19 side-by-side bridges, created a tunnel and then built a 30-acre city park on top. The project took more than five years to finish and cost an estimated $700 million.

Remember when we first blogged about Arizona ’s Long-Range Transportation Plan?

It’s the plan that’s updated every five years and helps set ADOT’s priorities when it comes to the state’s transportation needs over the next 25 years.

You might also remember that in an effort to get significant feedback about where Arizonans would like to see their transportation dollars spent, ADOT tried something a little different in terms of public involvement.

Steering away from the traditional public meeting route, we launched an extensive outreach campaign – coined What Moves You Arizona – as a coordinated effort to communicate information about the multibillion-dollar gap between the state’s transportation needs over the next 25 years and anticipated revenue.

What Moves You Arizona offered a way to reach out to as many people as possible and give everyone the opportunity to have their voice heard – the opportunity for Arizonans to tell ADOT what was important to them regarding the future of transportation in their state.

Here’s a breakdown of the campaign:

• 12 Meeting-In-a-Box kits requested and distributed.
• 6 e-newsletters with a total distribution of 128,693 sent.
• 3 educational videos created generating 2,720 online views.
• 66 DVD requests fulfilled.
• 86 total newspaper advertisements placed along with spots on 23 radio stations.
• 2,385 surveys completed (an unprecedented response!)

Not only did the outreach efforts generate an unprecedented amount of public input, but the campaign was awarded with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ Excel Award – AASHTO’s highest award for public relations programs and campaigns.

The award was announced Tuesday at the National Transportation Public Affairs Workshop (NTPAW) in Iowa! NTPAW is sponsored each year by AASHTO’s subcommittee on transportation communications.

Thanks to the numerous survey responses and the comments made at the workshops, ADOT was able to incorporate all that feedback into the Long-Range Transportation Plan and determine a recommended investment choice and associated performance measures. The final plan is scheduled to be adopted by the State Transportation Board in October and will be released in November.

ADOT appreciates everyone who attended workshops, provided feedback and took the time to complete a survey. Your participation gave Arizonans a voice in shaping our transportation future.

If you haven't yet, be sure to "like" us on Facebook where you can always give us your feedback and input!

Think back to 1984. You might recall that the United States hosted the summer Olympics in Los Angeles and Michael Jackson’s Thriller snagged eight Grammy Awards. It’s also when the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) identified the need for a West Valley regional connector freeway later to be dubbed Loop 303.

After years of scoping, study, assessment, public input and design the Loop 303 is taking shape in the West Valley. In May, a four-lane section between Interstate 17 and Happy Valley Parkway opened; and, just last week, preliminary construction work began on the next leg in Surprise, between Mountain View Boulevard (just south of U.S. 60/Grand Avenue) and Peoria Avenue.

Many who live and work in the northwest valley have been eagerly waiting for ADOT to “turn dirt” on this six-mile segment of new highway. Right now, crews are establishing water sources so they can pre-wet the ground before excavation; surveying the alignment so utilities can be relocated; and clearing the work zone of weeds and debris. In the weeks to come, the area will become an active work zone, with construction occurring on the roadway and on new bridges throughout the six-mile area simultaneously.

This phase of the Loop 303 Improvement Project is scheduled to last about two years and will transform the existing, two-lane roadway into a modern urban freeway. By fall 2013, it will include three lanes in each direction with a median, auxiliary lanes and signalized traffic interchanges at Bell, Greenway, Waddell and Cactus Roads.

No doubt, there will be impacts to area traffic while this work is underway. ADOT will provide information about possible lane restrictions, road closures or detours in advance. In addition to traffic information, ADOT is committed to providing information about other possible impacts to the surrounding community, and provides simple ways for residents and businesses to stay informed:

• Visit our Projects page and sign up to receive email updates. ADOT sends email alerts to subscribers weekly or as needed.
• Questions or comments? Call the toll-free ADOT Project Hotline at 855.712.8530.

Some terrain is so rough and rocky that even heavy-duty machinery can’t break through.

That was the case last Thursday when ADOT crews used more than 7,000 lbs. of explosives to remove roughly 8,000 cubic yards of material along SR 260, about 20 miles east of Payson.

And, they’re not done, yet…

ADOT is working to widen the three-mile stretch of two-lane undivided roadway into a four-lane, divided highway. By the time this project finishes next fall, roughly one million cubic yards of dirt and rocks will have been removed.

Crews are using bulldozers and excavators where they can, but blasting is the only way to get through some the rockier spots.

For the blast in the video above, 179 holes were drilled and then filled with the 7,354 lbs of Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil, a type of explosive commonly used on projects like this. The blasts are set off with a charge from a wire detonated from a safe distance.

More blasting will be necessary for this project.

Check back for another video with additional details on this project and the improvements planned and even more explosive footage of the blast.

We want to hear from you!

Public involvement is the key to designing a roadway that improves traffic flow and enhances safety. As ADOT works with the Federal Highway Administration and the Regional Transportation Authority to widen Oracle Road (SR 77) from Tangerine Road to the Pinal County line, our ears are open to comments, questions and concerns.

Proposed improvements include widening Oracle Road from two lanes to three lanes in each direction. This work will tie into the recently widened section of the highway from Calle Concordia to Tangerine Road.

Other proposed improvements include:

• 10-foot-wide shoulders (7-foot-wide with curb in Catalina) for cyclists
• Rubberized asphalt
• Raised center medians and left-turn lanes in the Catalina area
• Traffic signal improvements
• Drainage improvements
• Replacing shared-use path on the east side of Oracle Road from Wilds Road to Mainsail Boulevard
• Retaining walls and noise walls (if required by environmental study)
• Three wildlife crossing structures to allow wildlife to migrate safely between the Santa Catalina and Tortolita mountains, without crossing the roadway at street level. (The crossing structures are made possible through the RTA and are planned to coincide with the ADOT project).

So, how can you get your voice heard? Visit the project page to email your comments or find out more information on SR 77. Public comments are an important part of the project!

On June 6, more than 300 soldiers with the 40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion returned home to Ft. Huachuca after serving in Iraq for the past year.

These soldiers were welcomed by family, friends and community – but, many also were greeted with the fact that there is so much to take care after you’ve been away from home for 12 months.

“There are a lot of things that a soldier needs to do when they get back,” said Colonel Patrick Dedham, Brigade Commander, 11th Signal Brigade, in the video above. “First they have to reintegrate into their life as a soldier here at Ft. Huachuca, their life as maybe a husband, or a wife. There’s also all the administrative things they need to do.”

It was the administrative tasks that soldiers received assistance with through a Reverse Soldier Readiness Process event held at Ft. Huachuca.

The process is intended to help the soldiers shift back into life stateside and ADOT’s Motor Vehicle Division participated by assisting with driver license issues and vehicle title and registration concerns.

MVD employees can handle everything on-site, except for processing. For that final step the soldier is given a return letter, which they can take to the nearby MVD office for expedited service and no waiting in line.

MVD Southern Regional Manager Esther Perez was on hand for the Reverse Soldier Readiness Process and the homecoming event celebrating the return of the soldiers.

“It was a touching moment,” she said of seeing all the family reunions taking place. “Tears come to your eyes. … They’re protecting the country, so we’re here to do what we need to help them.”

If you drive Valley freeways during rush hour, you’re probably pretty familiar with ramp meters …

They’re the two-light signals positioned at most Valley on-ramps that tell motorists when it’s okay to head onto the freeway.

Ramp meters have been used in the Phoenix-Metro area for about the past 20 years and maybe you think not much about them has changed … but, actually they’ve recently become much more efficient!

Thanks to a project funded through the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG), roughly 300 ramp meters have been replaced with units that use newer, smarter technology.

As ADOT’s Intelligent Transportation System Supervisor Chuck McClatchey explains in the video above, the older ramp meters were not nearly as efficient as the new models.

“The new controllers actually operate totally independent of each other, which, means you can have 15 cars in one lane, no cars in the other lane and it will give 15 straight greens and just maintain red on the left side,” he said. “The older technology would give two greens and then a green to the non-existent cars. … So you can see that it really was not that efficient.”

But how does the ramp meter “know” a car is ready and waiting to take off onto the freeway?

Well, there are actually sensors in the ground adjacent to the signals that can detect a car as it pulls up. The ramp meter will then give a green light and start metering back and forth between the two lanes.

The meters also get information from the mainline, or freeway.

If the mainline is free-flowing, then the ramp meter will put on as many cars as possible. But if the mainline traffic slows down, the sensors pick that up and the rate at which cars are given a green light slows down some to help relieve the congestion.

The system has something called a queue-loop located at the very top of the ramp, too. The queue-loop is kind of a manual override that senses when traffic is backed up on the ramp completely up to the top. If that happens, the loop is activated and the metering goes to the fastest rate until the ramp is cleared. Basically, it’s a safety factor that keeps traffic from backing up into the surface street intersections.

All these features add up and help make it a little easier for motorists to get where they need to go!

The wildfires burning through portions of the state are destroying so much … from the scenic acreage that will be changed forever to the property loss and the lives so terribly affected.

It’s difficult to take it all in.

But if there’s anything to be gained from this disaster, it’s an even deeper gratitude and appreciation for the fire fighters and support personnel risking so much to battle the flames.

Several ADOT employees are among that support team and not only are they doing all they can in response to the emergency, but many are residents of the towns they’re trying to help save. They’ve stayed behind as friends and family members have been evacuated, in some cases evacuating their own families after their 12-hour shifts.

For the Wallow Fire alone, ADOT maintenance and operations crews from St. Johns, Springerville and Show Low have been on duty day and night keeping motorists out of the fire, allowing firefighters to focus on battling the blaze.

ADOT Maintenance and Operations Tech Brannon Morales sums it up best in the video above, “We’ve got a job to do and it’s keeping the firefighters safe, as well as the public.”

Since the fires began and started to threaten towns, residences and lives, these ADOT crews have assisted in coordinating and setting up the closures of hundreds of miles of state highways. That work includes making sure people know about the road blocks through message boards and signs.

But emergency response and working toward keeping the public safe is not new for ADOT. In fact, it’s a big part of what ADOT does, according to ADOT Emergency Manager Courtney Bear.

“There are maybe 2,500 firefighters on this but there’s probably 1,000 support personnel and we’re a part of that support team,” she said. “We’re a public safety agency… we have a huge public safety component to what we do.”

Talk about a quick turnaround … it’s been just three months since a fiery crash destroyed the Mescal Road/J-Six Ranch Road bridge in Cochise County and already ADOT has approved a contract to rebuild and reopen the bridge this fall.

Considering the process can normally take up to two years, it is clear this project is critical to the nearby communities.

You might remember that the bridge suffered heavy damage back on March 15 after two semi-trucks collided underneath it. The damage from the resulting fire was so severe that the bridge was demolished by ADOT a few weeks later on April 8.

But, with the bridge gone, so is the link between the communities of Mescal and J-Six Ranch, and that is why the replacement project is on a fast track.

In fact, construction is expected to begin early next month at the site located on I-10 at milepost 297, west of Benson.

The project includes replacement of four columns, retrofit of abutments, installation of new precast concrete girders, construction of the concrete roadway, placement of approach slabs, painting of the existing and new portion of the bridge, pavement marking and other related work.

Federal Highway Administration emergency relief funds, a shortened time frame for designing the replacement bridge and a quick construction bid process all have helped move the project ahead at a rapid pace.

Drivers in the area should know that detours have been in place since March 15, when fire damage to the concrete piers and steel girders required closure of the bridge, which was originally built in 1958. The adjacent pedestrian bridge was not damaged by the fire.

Most of the signs ADOT produces have to be pretty big so drivers can read them, but one of the newest is simply massive…

At 16x16 feet, a new sign welcoming motorists to Arizona is among the tallest in the state. It recently was installed on Interstate 8 near Yuma; however, it was made in Phoenix , and as you can imagine, moving a sign that size isn’t a simple task (see video above and photo slideshow below).

At roughly 1,000 pounds, the sign is so tall that it needed to be split in half for transport. Both halves were hoisted with a crane and put onto a trailer on moving day. After the nearly 200-mile journey, six ADOT crew members worked for about two hours to unload the sign and attach it three posts.

It was a big job, but the crew has plenty of experience installing signs around the state. Signs, markers and signals actually are a top priority for several organizational work groups, or orgs, within ADOT’s Traffic Engineering Group.

The ADOT employees in these groups paint stripes, keep an inventory of all sorts of highway traffic items and assemble and maintain traffic signal controllers. They also get to build, install and maintain the signs you see on your commute every day.

They built the huge welcome sign … it took just about four hours to assemble after all the components were fabricated because of their skill.

Besides its size, another thing drivers might notice is how reflective the new sign is at night. That’s because it was made using a reflective sign sheeting material that is cut out and directly applied to the aluminum background. Tiny, microscopic prisms are embedded into the material that allow more light to be reflected back to motorists and at greater angles than were possible in the past.

This type of sheeting has been in use for the past several years. It allows almost two seconds more notice for drivers traveling at highway speeds (about 150 feet at highway speeds) than the previous type of sheeting available on the market.

A few more facts about the new sign …

• There are eight freeway-sized “welcome” signs in Arizona – one at each freeway entrance.

• The old sign will be recycled …the sheeting will be removed and the panels can then be used as the background to make any sign. ADOT saves about $4 a square foot by doing this and has been recycling signs long before it became fashionable.

• The sign being replaced is from the 1990s.

• The enormous sign was secured to three I-beam posts. Over 96 post clips and 240 bolts were used to build the sign.

So be on the look out if you’re traveling to California and heading back on I-8. You’re in for a pretty impressive welcome to the Grand Canyon State!