If you’ve driven the Loop 303 recently, you know that construction is now in full swing from I-10 all the way up to Mountain View Boulevard near US 60 (Grand Avenue)…

Crews are working to turn what was a two-lane roadway into a modern freeway (three lanes in each direction).

While the entire corridor won’t be finished until 2014, there is a section in Surprise – from Peoria Avenue to Mountain View Boulevard – that is nearly 90 percent complete. That means by around mid-July, drivers in the West Valley will notice a big difference along this six-mile stretch!

Not only will there be three lanes in each direction, but the project also includes a median, auxiliary lanes and signalized traffic interchanges at Bell, Greenway, Waddell and Cactus Roads.

The freeway will be essentially finished (along the Peoria Avenue to Mountain View Boulevard portion only), but crews will need to come back in the fall to place rubberized asphalt.

On the project site Right now, crews have paved most of the southbound lanes. You might remember that the northbound side was completed first (north- and southbound traffic now travels along a portion of the improved northbound lanes).

Retaining walls and the sound walls are up, too.

Crews continue to work on curb and gutters, lights, fencing, and cable barriers. They’ll also be stabilizing the slopes on the project with seeding and wattles. On the heels of this section’s completion, a landscaping project will start up to spruce up the freeway-facing areas.

Drivers will also notice that the portable batch plant will soon be moved from its current spot at Greenway Road to a location further south, so that it may be used for other portions of the Loop 303.

Drivers might also have observed two piles of dirt near the Grand Avenue and Loop 303 intersection. That is dirt that’s been excavated as a part of this project. It will be recycled and used once work starts on the 303/Grand Avenue traffic interchange.

When it comes to preventing sediment from being washed out of construction sites and into adjacent water sources, there’s a low-tech solution that proves very useful. It’s called a wattle....

A what?

Funny name aside, a wattle is used for sediment control and provides an efficient way to slow down storm water runoff.

Wattles are basically tubes filled with straw, but when used in conjunction with other measures, they reduce the possibility of sediment pollution.

ADOT goes to great lengths to prevent sediment from its construction projects from being washed into adjacent creeks and streams during storms. On projects where excavated material can be washed away, the contractor has to submit a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan that describes the measures that will be taken to prevent sediment runoff.

Very often, wattles are a part of that plan.

ADOT Senior Resident Engineer Tom Goodman explains wattles are typically placed on embankment slopes and act sort of like a dam.

“As water hits the wattle, the water kind of ponds up behind the wattle. This gives the sediment time to settle. Then the water goes down with less sediment,” said Goodman, adding that more wattles are usually placed down the hill and will continue to filter out the sediment.

Rock check dams are sometimes used for the same purpose. They’re similar to straw wattles, but are made up of piles of rocks ... they work in the same way to filter out sediment.

Wattles are used in just about every project and sometimes are left on the slopes adjacent to highways. The straw wattles deteriorate in three to five years, giving vegetation time to take root and stabilize the slopes.