News

PHOENIX ‒ The Arizona Department of Transportation has won an award for using cutting-edge data collection and modeling for a US 160 bridge project that created a sustainable, resilient solution to erosion from a meandering creek on the Navajo Nation.

PHOENIX – The 15th Avenue bridge over Loop 101 (Pima Freeway) in north Phoenix will be closed until late next year starting Monday night, July 8, for improvements that are part of the Arizona Department of Transportation’s ongoing freeway widening project.

Crews will be making changes to the bridge to allow room for new freeway lanes under the structure. Drivers should plan on using alternate routes while the following closures are scheduled:

PHOENIX – An Arizona Department of Transportation project beginning Monday, July 8, will improve the bridge deck and pavement and widen on- and off-ramps at the Interstate 40 Bellemont/Transwestern Road interchange 13 miles west of Flagstaff.

Drivers on I-40 can expect lane closures and a reduced speed limit overnights during this work, which is scheduled to be complete by year’s end.

PHOENIX – After construction on 40 bridges over more than two years, workers have placed the final girder for the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, the Arizona Department of Transportation’s single largest-ever freeway construction project.

Crews with Connect 202 Partners, the freeway developer, lowered the 91-foot, 77,000-pound girder into place recently at the interchange under construction at Desert Foothills Parkway in Ahwatukee. This work will be followed by pouring the concrete deck for the overpass later this month.

PHOENIX – Community outreach and growth are among the reasons Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport is the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Airport of the Year for 2019.

The airport has won the title twice before, and its last win, in 2012, underscores how rapidly it has grown. It was the nation’s 65th-busiest at the time; it’s now 32nd, with 288,000 takeoffs and departures a year.

PHOENIX – Two additional Loop 101 (Pima Freeway) ramps at Scottsdale and Hayden roads in north Scottsdale will be closed for approximately 60 days starting Monday night, June 24, for an ongoing freeway widening project.

The eastbound Loop 101 on-ramp at Scottsdale Road and eastbound off-ramp at Hayden Road are scheduled to close at 9 p.m. Monday and remain closed until late-August for work related to the Arizona Department of Transportation’s $185 million project to add lanes and make other improvements along the freeway.

PHOENIX – A tunnel built to keep pedestrians safe near the Arizona Department of Transportation’s commercial port of entry in Nogales is now open around the clock.

ADOT’s Enforcement and Compliance Division conducts truck safety inspections near where pedestrians emerge from the federal portion of the Mariposa Port of Entry. The 150-yard underground walkway keeps pedestrians out of the way of trucks that have cleared ADOT inspections and are accelerating to merge onto State Route 189.

PHOENIX – Arizona Department of Transportation engineers are exploring another option for smoothing out the ride along Phoenix-area freeways where the asphalt pavement showed its age and was wearing down, especially after last winter’s heavier wet weather.

PHOENIX – Firefighters need regular training to be ready for emergencies, and that goes for the seven firefighters assigned to the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Grand Canyon National Park Airport in Tusayan.

Recently, ADOT’s firefighters traveled to the San Bernardino Regional Emergency Training Center, where trainees benefit from life-size models that simulate hazards ranging from a plane with overheated brakes to a fire in the passenger cabin.

PHOENIX – Arizona saw fewer crashes, fewer fatal crashes, fewer injury crashes and fewer crash-caused injuries on its roadways in 2018 compared to 2017, according to the 2018 Motor Vehicle Crash Facts report that was released today.

However, despite reductions in those key areas, the number of total traffic fatalities increased by 1%. In 2018, 1,010 people killed in vehicle collisions on all of Arizona’s roads compared to 998 in 2017.

PHOENIX – Man’s best friend and a clever play on words were the big winners in the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Safety Message Contest.

After tallying more than 5,000 votes for the 15 safety message finalists, the winning messages are:

PHOENIX – A pair of Loop 101 (Pima Freeway) ramps at Scottsdale and Hayden roads in north Scottsdale will be closed for approximately 60 days starting Monday night, June 17, for an ongoing freeway widening project.

The westbound Loop 101 on-ramp at Hayden Road and westbound off-ramp at Scottsdale Road are scheduled to close at 9 p.m. Monday and remain closed until mid-August for work related to the Arizona Department of Transportation’s $185 million project to add lanes and make other improvements along the freeway.

PHOENIX – West Route 66 in Flagstaff is going to be narrowed to one lane in each direction overnight for the next five weeks starting Monday, June 17, while the Arizona Department of Transportation installs a pedestrian hybrid beacon at the intersection with Blackbird Roost Street.

Work along Route 66 will occur overnight between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. Mondays through Fridays. No work will be scheduled on weekends or holidays. Drivers should expect delays.

Information about how the beacon works is available at azdot.gov/phb.

PHOENIX – When stormwater from Valley rains, including monsoon thunderstorms, makes its way through freeway drainage systems, that runoff carries a lot of trash into the Arizona Department of Transportation’s pump stations.

It takes some powerful vacuums to remove litter, debris and sludge from the 59 pump stations along Phoenix-area freeways. And ADOT has a big machine for the job.

PHOENIX – Are you ready, Arizona? Monsoon season is back.

While the exact moment of when the first massive wall of dust will rise up from the desert floor isn’t known, we do know this: It’s coming.

With June 9-14 officially proclaimed Monsoon Awareness Week by Governor Doug Ducey, now is the perfect time to brush up on the actions drivers can take to stay safest when confronted with blowing dust.

The No. 1 thing motorists can do to stay out of harm’s way? Do. Not. Drive. Into. A. Dust. Storm.

PHOENIX – With all bridge girders in place, frontage road construction underway and an overpass built over railroad tracks, among other milestones, Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway construction continues advancing along the 59th Avenue alignment south of Interstate 10 (Papago Freeway) in west Phoenix.

In the first half of 2019, crews working on this Arizona Department of Transportation project have made significant progress along the Papago segment between Interstate 10 and Lower Buckeye Road, including:

PHOENIX – The Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division is urging MVD customers to be careful when looking up websites for motor vehicle services. Copycat websites not operated by the MVD may charge for services people can otherwise get for free.

“We frequently get contacted from people who used a website such as DMV.org or Drivers-Licenses.org, and were charged improper or exorbitant fees for something that’s free, and we never want to see that happen,” said MVD Deputy Director Chad Campbell.

With planned Interstate 17 flex lanes between Black Canyon City and Sunset Point set for construction starting by 2021, the state budget approved by state lawmakers and signed by Governor Doug Ducey provides the additional funding needed to also complete widening I-17 south of where the flex system will be built.

Area customers who use the local Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division office should plan for new operating hours on the second Wednesday of each month. Starting on June 12, the MVD office will open at noon each second Wednesday only to allow Customer Service Representatives to use this time for ongoing training.