By Tom Herrmann / ADOT Communications

On Aug. 1, 20 truck drivers who carry products and produce from Mexican into the United States sat in a room San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico, to learn about ADOT safety inspections required for trucks entering Arizona from Mexico.

Just six weeks after that, ADOT’s Border Liaison Unit almost can’t schedule classes fast enough for all of the drivers in Mexico who want to learn more about what happens when inspectors from ADOT’s Enforcement and Compliance Division take a close look at their trucks.

ADOT's International Border Inspection Qualification training program grows from the Arizona Management System championed by Governor Doug Ducey. Here’s what this innovative program does:

• It takes training into Mexico – the first time any state department of transportation has done that – in order to reach as many drivers as possible.
• It removes the mystery from the inspection process. Drivers and mechanics know what is expected during safety inspections, and they can reduce delays by having their trucks ready for those inspections before they approach the border.
• It speeds up the inspection process for qualifying drivers.
• It takes advantage of technology by allowing drivers to use a smartphone application, WhatsApp, to communicate with inspectors and make needed repairs.

That’s what it does for drivers. The benefits are just as important for Arizona.

Improving the inspection process has meant more traffic coming to Arizona ports of entry. That strengthens the state’s economy and supports jobs, many of them in border communities. The port at San Luis already has seen an increase in commercial traffic.

It also means safer roads. Qualifying drivers have a better understanding of safety requirements. And by focusing on trucks that may have a higher risk for safety concerns, inspectors have found more violations despite conducting fewer 37-point Level 1 inspections.

Another 40 drivers will meet with inspectors in Nogales, Sonora, next week. Future classes are scheduled deeper into Mexico, in Hermosillo, Sonora, and Culiacán, Sinaloa. By Thanksgiving, inspectors will have held eight two-day sessions – twice the original plan – and may qualify as many as 250 drivers.

That's long way from those seemingly humble beginnings just six weeks ago.

By Steve Elliott / ADOT Communications

We hope you saw the news today that girders placed for Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway bridges spanning the Salt River are the longest of their kind – by 9 feet – ever installed by ADOT. While that bit of transportation trivia is interesting enough on its own, also significant is what these bridges will mean to growing areas of the southwest Valley.

As the video above explains, right now areas including Laveen have access to just one all-weather crossing of the Salt River between 35th Avenue and Avondale Boulevard: the city of Phoenix's 51st Avenue bridge. This past spring, when heavy rain had the Salt River flowing through the area, showed that the weather doesn't already cooperate.

The Salt River bridges are two of 40 planned for the South Mountain Freeway, and they are by far the longest on the project at approximately 2,700 feet, or about a half-mile long.

As South Mountain Freeway construction progresses, we're keeping you posted on things you may not know about a project of this scale, such as how art and aesthetics are a critical part of the plan and why a support known as a straddle bent is a big part of work creating an interchange with I-10 at 59th Avenue.

Stay tuned and learn more as we progress toward opening the 22-mile Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway by late 2019.

By Tom Herrmann / ADOT Communications

As you drive by Ina Road on Interstate 10, high above where Arizona Department of Transportation crews have been working hard in the dirt below, it’s been a little hard to see the progress our crews have been making on this massive project.

That’s all changing.

At the sixth-month point of this project, several things should catch your eye. The video above highlights those.

We’ve poured cement on a bridge that in a few months will carry Ina Road over the Santa Cruz River. That will allow us to remove and replace the old bridge. A year from now we’ll have two bridges carrying traffic over the river and through the desert, doubling the capacity of Ina Road west of I-10.

Closer to I-10, huge cement pillars are in place to hold a new bridge that will carry Ina Road traffic over I-10 and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. Girders will be placed on those pillars next month so we can build the western half of that bridge.

Looking east from I-10, more than a dozen 30-foot tall towers of steel rebar have been cemented into place. They will become the support structures for the eastern half of that same bridge over I-10 and the railroad tracks.

Barring something unexpected, we’ll be moving I-10 traffic to new eastbound lanes and beginning work on the east side of the freeway shortly after the first of the year. A year later, in early 2019, you’ll have a wider I-10, wider Ina Road, near bridges over the Santa Cruz River and no more delays as trains make their way north toward Phoenix and south toward Tucson.

Want regular updates on this important project? The town of Marana has a smartphone app, ProjectIna, that’s updated regularly. We're maintaining access to area businesses throughout.

By Kim Katchur / ADOT Communications

Our ADOT video team is celebrating this month because views on our YouTube channel have topped 1 million. We think that’s a pretty big deal, and we appreciate our channel subscribers and followers.

Transportation is personal; it allows every one of us the freedom to go where we want, when we want and how we want. That’s why our team works hard to produce videos that give you a better understanding of the work we do here at ADOT and how it affects you.

The videos aren’t typical government productions. They are stylistic stories told by the people who do the work: the engineers, construction and maintenance crews, enforcement officers, environmental specialists and others. These agency employees can explain better than anyone the challenges of building a new interchange over live freeway traffic, the ADOT innovations that help us work more efficiently or what it’s like to drive a snowplow.

Our team also produces videos to help keep you safe, as well as some that are just, well, cool to watch.

We add new videos to our YouTube channel all the time, so be sure to check it frequently. Even better, become one of our subscribers.

By Steve Elliott / ADOT Communications

ADOT's culture of continuous improvement has every employee, everywhere, solving problems every day. Under the Arizona Management System championed by Governor Doug Ducey, we're constantly looking for ways to improve our value to customers including you.

The video above explains how one employee's suggestion has paid big dividends at our Equipment Services shops, which maintain and repair ADOT vehicles as well as vehicles from other agencies.

Justin Mein, a technician at the Tucson shop, looked at all the bottles of wiper fluid used at his operation and suggested an alternative: tablets that can be dropped into water in a vehicle's reservoir to create wiper fluid.

The benefits begin with taxpayer dollars – using tablets costs 71 cents less per gallon than relying on bottled wiper fluid – but involve much more than that. The tablets eliminate the waste of employees having to lug around gallon jugs of wiper fluid. The change also has greatly reduced plastic waste and the storage space that must be devoted to wiper fluid.

Previous ADOT blog posts have shared videos highlighting employee ideas that have improved how we upgrade overhead message boards, protect highway signs from graffiti and repair street sweepers, among other subjects. We'll have many more to share in the coming months.

By Tom Herrmann / ADOT Communications

Back in 1935, a little bridge at Wet Canyon helped open up the beauty of Arizona’s Mount Graham for hiking, camping, picnicking and all sorts of outdoor activities on Graham County’s tallest peak.

Lately, though, the old bridge has been as helpful to picnickers as Yogi Bear’s fondness for pic-i-nic baskets.

Monsoon rains of the past two weeks washed debris off the mountain and into the drainage at Wet Canyon. Some of it is from the recent Frye Fire, but it’s also from a fire that occurred back in 2004. All of the debris was too much for the 80-year-old bridge, which had only a small opening for water to pass through. The result was flooding that closed some recreational areas and washed away picnic tables from the Wet Canyon Picnic Area.

Arizona Department of Transportation crews had already built a new bridge at this spot on Swift Trail (State Route 366). With cooperation from the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies, ADOT crews removed the old bridge in just two days this week.

Brian Jevas, assistant district engineer for ADOT’s Southeast District, shot the before, during and after images above while standing on the new bridge, which is higher and has plenty of room for water and flood debris to get by.

SR 366 remains closed indefinitely at Ladybug Saddle because of storm damage and concerns about flash flooding. Drivers should watch for ADOT and U.S. Forest Service crews in the area.

Recreational areas at Noon Creek, Angle Orchard, Wet Canyon and Turkey Flat are open thanks to some hard-working folks who did fast work with the old bridge this week. Enjoy.

By John Dougherty / ADOT Communications

An ADOT news release today shared show a structure known as a straddle bent is an important part of the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway interchange under construction near Interstate 10 and 59th Avenue. Able to straddle lanes of traffic to support a flyover ramp, it's a handy alternative to a standard one-column bridge pier.

I visited the construction site recently to take pictures (including the one at right) as the first straddle bent neared completion, straddling the westbound lanes of I-10. If you drive past it today, the wooden falsework has come down, so you can see its concrete cap in full.

One of the best ways to see how this straddle bent and others will be used is looking at straddle bents at other freeway-to-freeway interchanges. The slideshow above takes you to the I-10/SR 51 HOV lane ramps in central Phoenix and to the Loop 202 Santan/Loop 101 Price interchange in Chandler.

Art of Transportation
We think there is beauty in transportation. It’s not all hard hats and pavement. Art of Transportation is a blog series featuring unique photos our team has taken while on the road or on a construction project.

By Peter Corbett / ADOT Communications

Hollywood loves Arizona’s highways and picturesque landscapes.

Filmmakers have been bringing their lights, camera and action to Arizona highway locations for more than 75 years. Director John Ford sent a crew here in 1939 to shoot “Grapes of Wrath” on Route 66, and last year Michael Bay filmed scenes in Arizona for the fifth installment of the “Transformers” series.

Parts of “Transformers: The Last Knight,” which opened June 21, were filmed at Luke Air Force Base, a Valley junkyard and along Loop 303 and State Route 88. Paramount Pictures obtained a permit from the Arizona Department of Transportation to shoot its highway scenes (you can see the 303 ever so briefly at 2:14 in the video below).

“We had numerous action sequences that involved specialty vehicles, aircraft and pyrotechnics on ADOT highways,” said Denton Hanna, “Transformers” location manager.

He praised ADOT for its assistance and problem-solving while Paramount was filming in Arizona.

“I cannot overstate the importance of ADOT in the success of filming these action road scenes in Phoenix,” Denton said.

Arizona’s proximity to Hollywood, clear weather and scenic highways across a variety of terrain lure filmmakers here for big budget films, westerns, documentaries and commercials. Many of those shoots involve highway scenes that require an ADOT permit.

ADOT officials work with the Arizona Office of Film & Digital Media, to assist film and other media productions.

ADOT issues no-cost permits for filming along its highways with the understanding that film productions generate significant spending within the state.

The “Transformers” production had close to 300 people working at Arizona locations for three weeks, boosting the economy through buying meals, lodging, fuel and other ancillary spending.

ADOT’s requirements for film permits, including adequate liability insurance, safeguard the state’s investment in its highways and ensure there are no costs to taxpayers.

The agency issued 12 film permits in 2015, another 18 in 2016 and 12 already this year through this month, according to Jennifer Cannon, ADOT manager of statewide permit services.

ADOT tries to accommodate film productions even when a producer’s stunts get outlandish. One crew tethered a vehicle from a crane off the Navajo Bridge in an automobile “bungee jump.”

Every precaution was taken to prevent damage to the bridge or debris falling into the Colorado River, Cannon said.

“We don’t generally say no,” she said. “We try to figure out a way to make it happen.”

That can involve a lot of back and forth between ADOT and location managers to protect the traveling public and still get the shots filmmakers want.

ADOT is working with a filmmaker for a complicated shoot recently with multiple cameras and hundreds of extras marching along State Route 80 from Bisbee to Lowell in a historical re-enactment. Typically, the highway can only be closed for short intervals.

“Overall, we want to keep traffic and business flowing,” Cannon said.

A recent shoot south of Sedona involved short closures of SR 179 to film a bicycle rider near Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte. The footage is for a pharmaceutical commercial.

Cannon listed a handful of car brands that have recently filmed commercials in Arizona, including one on US 93 near Hoover Dam.

Of course, big budget movie productions get the most attention when they visit the state, spending millions of dollars and hiring local workers and contractors.

Arizona’s motion picture history covers a road atlas of locations for films like “Little Miss Sunshine,” and “The Kingdom” from a decade ago to “Forrest Gump” and “Three Kings” in the 1990s.

In “Kingdom,” filmed in 2006, a stretch of the Loop 202 was a stand-in for Saudi Arabia with highway signs in Arabic temporarily posted on overpasses.

In 1994, Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump was filmed running in downtown Flagstaff. In another scene, he’s shown jogging past the giant twin arrows at the Twin Arrows Trading Post west of Winslow. He ends his epic three-year super-marathon on US 163 in Monument Valley just north of the Arizona line.

Downtown Flagstaff and other Northern Arizona highway locations were also used for location shots in “National Lampoon Vacation,” the 1983 comedy starring Chevy Chase, that featured a humorously brief visit at a Grand Canyon scenic overlook.

Route 66 and US 89 figured prominently in two counter-culture road movies. In “Easy Rider,” (1969) Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper cruise on motorcycles across Northern Arizona and the Navajo Reservation before they connect with Jack Nicholson in New Mexico.

Musicians James Taylor and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys hit the Arizona road in a high-performance 1955 Chevy for “Two-Lane Blacktop,” (1971) a road movie that flew under the radar gun when it was released.

Going way back to “Grapes of Wrath,” Route 66 was briefly featured in bookend scenes with the Joad family from Oklahoma entering Arizona at Lupton and leaving the state on the Old Trails Bridge in Topock.

After filming “Transformers” in Arizona last summer, Wahlberg gave a shout-out to Arizona on social media: “Hey Arizona. Thanks for letting us shoot T5 here. It’s been awesome. Amazing, amazing state here.” (see below for his full message)

And that’s a wrap.

 

Bye Phoenix!

A post shared by Mark Wahlberg (@markwahlberg) on Jun 17, 2016 at 10:55pm PDT

By Doug Pacey / ADOT Communications

Motorists might have noticed an uptick in road work across northern Arizona in the past few weeks as summer temperatures provide a window for paving and improving state highways in the high country.

That's why ADOT is launching a summer safety campaign in northern Arizona that encourages motorists to drive safely in work zones and reminds them of the “Move Over” law. The campaign will feature safety messages on overhead signs in the area and on ADOT’s social media channels.

Motorists that follow the “Move Over” law help keep ADOT work crews, as well as first responders, safe on Arizona’s roadways. “Move Over” requires motorists to move over one lane – or slow down if it is not safe to change lanes – when approaching vehicles with flashing lights pulled to the side of the road.

When driving in work zones – there are multiple planned paving projects on Interstate 40 west of Flagstaff this summer that will have lane restrictions – follow these tips to protect yourself and the men and women who build and maintain the state highway system:

• Pay attention: Observe and obey posted warning signs, as well as flaggers. You can be cited for disobeying a flagger’s directions.
• Expect the unexpected: Speed limits might be lowered, travel lanes could be narrowed or eliminated and people may be working near your travel lane.
• Slow down: Speeding is one of the leading causes of work zone crashes.
• Merge safely: Do it early and carefully or as directed by signage instead of barging into a line of vehicles at the last moment.
• Don’t tailgate: The most common crash in a work zone is the rear-end collision. Don’t follow too closely and, again, slow your speed.

For more information about work zone safety, visit azdot.gov/workzone. Information about “Move Over” is available at moveoveraz.org.

For the most current information about highway closures and restrictions statewide, visit ADOT’s Traveler Information Site at az511.gov, follow us on Twitter (@ArizonaDOT) or call 511.