Yuma

Adopt a Highway: Volunteers collect tons of trash from Arizona highways

Adopt a Highway: Volunteers collect tons of trash from Arizona highways

I-17 101 traffic interchange

Adopt a Highway: Volunteers collect tons of trash from Arizona highways

Adopt a Highway: Volunteers collect tons of trash from Arizona highways

September 23, 2021

Arizona Department of Transportation volunteers answered the call to participate on National CleanUp Day, Sept. 18, by removing more than 150 bags, or 2,053 pounds of trash from alongside Arizona’s highways. 

Forty groups from all corners of the state: Page, Yuma, Concho, Vernon, Show Low, Prescott, Chino Valley, Congress, Kingman, Lake Havasu City, Tucson, Bouse, Claypool, Sahuarita and Bullhead City, registered with ADOT for the event on the Adopt a Highway website. 

Adopt a Highway Program Manager Mary Currie said, “It’s a win for communities and the state of Arizona. One-day permits offer volunteers a way to explore one type of volunteer work among many, and to be a part of the litter solution. They get first hand experience on the process for adopting and how to conduct a litter cleanup safely. Our experience has been that some of these groups decide to complete the adoption for two-years and become regular caregivers of their segment”. 

More than half of the groups registering for the cleanup were new volunteers interested in participating for one day rather than a two-year adoption.

Every day Adopt a Highway program volunteers are giving back to Arizona somewhere in the state. ADOT strives to make it safe and as easy as possible for them to continue volunteering.  

These individual volunteers made a positive impact for drivers on the state highway system by removing all types of litter, including: cigarette butts, plastic bags and bottles, aluminum cans, and other unsightly trash. Car bumpers and refrigerator doors were also found along the way. A very dangerous type of trash for travelers.

Michele Michelson and her group of eight volunteers opted for a one-day permit to help clean up SR 89A in Prescott Valley. “We are all very proud to be here in this beautiful sunshine to keep the county, the town and our state clean. I saw ADOT’s post on facebook and registered. Here we are and we’ll do it again. Who doesn’t want to keep their community clean. Thank you ADOT for offering this opportunity.”

In return for a two-year permit and a sign recognizing their group’s segment, Adopt a Highway volunteers agree to:

Adopt a minimum of two miles of state highway

Always wear Federal Highway Administration required ANSI Class II Safety vests

Read a safety brief and watch a safety video before each cleanup

Contact ADOT before cleaning up their sections

File an activity report after each cleanup, telling ADOT how many bags of litter was collected

Clean their sections at least once and preferably three or more times per year

Motorists can support Adopt a Highway volunteers by slowing down where people are picking up litter and always driving with extra caution and care. 

To learn more about ADOT’s Adopt a Highway volunteer program, please visit azdot.gov/adoptahighway.

Historic Ligurta Wash Bridge still carrying traffic

Historic Ligurta Wash Bridge still carrying traffic

SR24-1

Historic Ligurta Wash Bridge still carrying traffic

Historic Ligurta Wash Bridge still carrying traffic

By Kathy Cline / ADOT Communications
September 25, 2020

When you think of a bridge, you probably imagine some long span crossing a deep canyon or large river. It's easy to overlook the humbler examples that cross small crevices and washes. 

And that's exactly what you'll find with the Ligurta Wash Bridge, not to be confused with the nearby and similarly named Ligurta Underpass, which we told you about in a previous blog.

Located on Old US Highway 80 near the eponymous community, the Ligurta Wash Bridge began its life in 1930. The Arizona Highway Department wanted to improve the Yuma-Wellton Highway (as that section of US 80 was then called), which started just east of Ligurta and ended about 5.5 miles away, before Wellton. The improvement plans included the construction of two nearly identical reinforced-concrete bridges over intermittent washes.

And speaking of design, the bridge is also one of the best surviving examples of a new girder standard. The state of Arizona was using concrete for bridges as early as 1910. The earliest girder bridges, such as the Antelope Hill Bridge, had two deep girders cast as part of the concrete deck. By the 1920s, the new standard was four or more shallower girders, which allowed for greater clearance under the bridge. The Ligurta Wash Bridge uses this refined design.

Construction began in the summer of 1930, and the bridge was opened to traffic the following spring. For many years, the Ligurta Wash Bridge carried much of the US 80 traffic. When Interstate 8 was built in the late 1960s, US 80 traffic dropped quite a bit, but the bridge remained standing. Now overseen by Yuma County, the Ligurta Wash Bridge lives on in its original form, carrying local traffic alongside I-8. It may not see the amount of traffic it used to, but its design has withstood the test of time.

Flashback Friday: In Yuma, 'reaping the reward of work well done'

Flashback Friday: In Yuma, 'reaping the reward of work well done'

SR24-1

Flashback Friday: In Yuma, 'reaping the reward of work well done'

Flashback Friday: In Yuma, 'reaping the reward of work well done'

By Steve Elliott / ADOT Communications
February 28, 2020

"Yuma extends to all of its thousands of visitors today its warmest welcome. We all rejoice in the completion of the great highway ... and in this celebration put up another monument to the progress of the Great Southwest." 

Ninety-five years ago today, this pronouncement next to the masthead of Yuma's Morning Sun started a day of festivities celebrating the completion of a highway stretching across Arizona and on to the Pacific. As US 80 and part of the coast-to-coast Bankhead Highway, the route went through southeastern Arizona to Tucson, north and west into Phoenix, over and down to Gila Bend and southwest to Yuma. From there, the highway replaced a plank road across the sand dunes between Yuma and California's Imperial Valley, then offered ways to either San Diego or Los Angeles.

An estimated 5,000 people traveled to Yuma for this celebration, including those carried by a 100-car caravan organized by the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. According to The Arizona Republican, there were "representatives from every community west of the New Mexico line which is on the highway. These include Tucson, Bisbee, Douglas, Tombstone and other southern Arizona cities, as well as Globe and Miami in the mining districts." 

The Phoenix-to-Yuma portion offered the infrastructure featured in the 1920s pictures at top and middle right (thanks, State Archives), including a gravel surface and crossing the Gila River along the apron of Gillespie Dam (construction began soon after on a bridge there). In its day, however, this was an achievement worthy of the Homeric prose it inspired. 

"We are all happy and well may we be," The Morning Sun opined. "Through sweat and toil, through years of disappointment and adverse conditions, Yuma and Imperial Valley with San Diego and Southern Arizona have worked for the construction of this road and we are reaping the reward of work well done."

Heroic efforts were needed to accommodate the thousands who flooded into Yuma, which at the time had a little fewer than 5,000 residents.

According to The Arizona Republican: "The streets of Yuma are decorated with flags and banners and glad hand committees welcome the strangers as they motor into town. Nothing had been overlooked to complete a celebration that has lived up to all advance notices. Every hotel is crowded and the committee on reservations worked late this evening assigning travelers to private homes and the latchstring is open to all."

US 80 entered Arizona along the path of what now is State Route 80, passing through Douglas, Bisbee, Tombstone and Benson, then over to Tucson. It traveled along the alignment of what is now SR 79 to connect to what is now US 60, then through Phoenix, out to Buckeye, south to Gila Bend and on to Yuma. Much of its general path between Phoenix and Yuma is what drivers see along today on SR 85 and Interstate 8. 

According to accounts from the time, a good deal of the celebration looked to the west of Yuma, where a real roadway was replacing a path built of planks across the ever-shifting sand dunes. The image at bottom right depicts this as the "Highway Across the American Sahara." 

"The graveled surface highway west of here that supplants the old detour to the plank road over the sand hills was one long stream of motor cars," The Arizona Republican reported. Meanwhile, the article said, many drove the plank road, apparently for old times' sake.

An open-air celebration at Yuma's Sunset Park featured bands from as far away as San Diego and speeches by a bevy of leaders including Arizona Governor George W.P. Hunt and Governor Friend William Richardson of California. 

It's clear from the newspaper accounts how much this transportation link was improving the quality of life in the young, growing state of Arizona, and also how much The Morning Sun and others looked forward to more such achievements:

"Today, in Yuma, we celebrate and make merry as we have finished another lap and erected another milestone in the progress and development of the Great Southwest."

 

In Yuma, eastbound I-8 ramps at Araby Road closing until September

In Yuma, eastbound I-8 ramps at Araby Road closing until September

I-17 101 traffic interchange

In Yuma, eastbound I-8 ramps at Araby Road closing until September

In Yuma, eastbound I-8 ramps at Araby Road closing until September

August 8, 2018

PHOENIX – Eastbound Interstate 8 entry and exit ramps at Araby Road (State Route 195) in Yuma will be closed for a month beginning next week as crews construct a new retaining wall as part of an Arizona Department of Transportation project upgrading the interchange.

I-8 drivers can use exits at Avenue 3E, Avenue 8½ E and 32nd Street during the closure scheduled to begin Monday, Aug. 13.

Araby Road remains limited to one lane in each direction between 26th and 30th streets near I-8, with no left turn from northbound Araby to Gila Ridge Road. The maximum vehicle width on Araby Road is 12 feet.

Also on Monday, Aug. 13, the westbound lane of Gila Ridge Road, closed since May, will reopen between Araby and the Tanimura and Antle Produce building at 6435 Gila Ridge Road.

ADOT is completing the second half of a project to replace traditional traffic signals with modern roundabouts at the Araby Road interchange. The roundabouts, which are safer and move traffic more efficiently than traffic signals, will be large enough to accommodate large trucks, recreational vehicles and agricultural equipment.

A roundabout on the north side of I-8 was completed in 2017. The current work south of I-8 is scheduled to be complete this fall.

Friday Five: Roundabouts, new webcams and a ramp closure in Surprise

Friday Five: Roundabouts, new webcams and a ramp closure in Surprise

SR24-1

Friday Five: Roundabouts, new webcams and a ramp closure in Surprise

Friday Five: Roundabouts, new webcams and a ramp closure in Surprise

September 8, 2017

Giss Parkway

By Caroline Carpenter / ADOT Communications

It was a short work week for most, but at ADOT we’re working 24/7 to keep drivers moving across the state. In our Friday Five, we’ll show you what we’ve been up to this week. Remember to follow the #FridayFive hashtag on social media to see what others are sharing today.

1. The Yuma area’s first modern roundabout opened to traffic at Giss Parkway and Interstate 8! Check out the photo above showing the roundabout. The final touches are still being put on the $2.5 million project and the work is expected to be completed this fall. Modern roundabouts have many benefits including a dramatic reduction in fatal crashes and a marked increase in traffic capacity. This ADOT video has tips on navigating a roundabout.

2. East Valley drivers and Maricopa residents can get a good look at their commutes from new traffic camera views recently added to az511.gov. Cameras at nine intersections along SR 347 are now online. On the Loop 202 Santan Freeway, the new camera views are between Chandler and Gilbert. ADOT maintains more than 300 traffic cameras across the state and is constantly adding more and upgrading old cameras to high-definition cameras.

 

 

 

3. The photos above show crews paving I-40 west of Flagstaff between Parks and Riordan. Drivers should expect delays because the road is down to one lane in each direction. The good news is base paving should be complete before winter, with the final surface paving done by spring 2018.

4. We shared this webcam photo from the Hualapai Valley Observatory on Monday. You may have heard we're always looking for good webcams. Not only can you see cool shots from the comfort of your home, but you can get a good idea of weather conditions before you leave the house. The Hualapai Valley Observatory is a private dark sky site for astronomical observations and has several online webcams.

2017-0908-n

Bell/Grand

5. Last, but definitely not least, is a notable closure. The Bell Road/Grand Avenue ramps will be closed to all traffic Sept. 18-24 for roadway improvements. The ramps will close from 1 a.m. Monday, Sept. 18, to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 24. Motorists may use detour routes along Dysart and Litchfield roads.