News

PHOENIX ‒ Arizona Highways has won 10 top prizes, including Magazine Writer of the Year and Photographer of the Year, from the International Regional Magazine Association.

At the association’s recent meeting in Banff, Canada, the Arizona Department of Transportation-produced magazine took home 22 awards in all, the most in the competition, and was a finalist for Magazine of the Year for work published in 2016.

PHOENIX – Arizona Department of Transportation crews will be doing pavement preservation along a nearly 20-mile stretch of Interstate 17 near Cordes Junction early next week.

The project will require alternating lane closures in each direction along the interstate between Crown King and State Route 169. Work will take place on Monday, Oct. 30, and Tuesday, Oct. 31, between 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.

PHOENIX – Drivers on US 70 between Safford and Globe in Graham County should expect delays over the next few months as Arizona Department of Transportation crews complete a repaving project.

Work will take place from 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays in the San Carlos Apache community of Bylas, located about 44 miles east of Globe and about 34 miles west of Safford. Work is expected to continue until spring 2018. The work will take place between mileposts 293 and 297.

PHOENIX – The skyline is changing almost daily at Interstate 10 and 59th Avenue as an interchange takes shape that will connect with the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway in west Phoenix.

After work completed last weekend, motorists now see the first girders, more than six stories above I-10, for a flyover ramp that will carry South Mountain Freeway traffic to westbound I-10.

PHOENIX – Pecos Road between 40th and 24th streets will be closed this weekend for utility work for the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway. The Arizona Department of Transportation is urging Ahwatukee motorists to consider alternate routes, such as Chandler Boulevard.

The Arizona Department of Transportation, as part of a process to streamline environmental reviews for certain projects while fulfilling all federal requirements, has initiated the process to assume environmental authority and review responsibility required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 for many federally funded highway projects statewide.

YUMA – With half the work completed on schedule, Arizona Department of Transportation crews are calling time out on the project to build a new traffic interchange at Interstate 8 and Araby Road so that agricultural traffic can move without restriction during the busy winter season.

Work on the modern roundabout north of I-8, which connects with exit and entrance ramps from westbound I-8, will end Friday, Oct. 27. Work on the roundabout on the south side of I-8 is scheduled to resume in the spring.

PHOENIX – A $6 million federal grant will help the Arizona Department of Transportation and partner agencies advance the use of technology to help drivers steer clear of congestion on the 60-mile-long Loop 101 freeway in the Phoenix area.

The project will include development of a Decision Support System to provide Loop 101 drivers with real-time information, including best detour routes, when freeway slowing occurs due to crashes, disabled vehicles or other incidents.

MESA – The Arizona Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration have scheduled two open house meetings on Monday, Nov. 6, to allow the public to learn about and share input on alternatives for improving US 60X, the Mesa roadway known locally as Main Street/Apache Trail.

The meetings are scheduled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 6, at:

Red Mountain Library
635 N. Power Road
Mesa

PHOENIX – Northbound Seventh Avenue remains narrowed to one lane at the Interstate 17 interchange in Phoenix, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Drivers should consider using other northbound routes in the area approaching downtown Phoenix, including Central Avenue and Seventh Street.

The northbound Seventh Avenue left turning lanes to the northbound I-17 on-ramp are closed. The southbound I-17 off-ramp also is restricted with one of two left turn lanes to northbound Seventh Avenue closed.

PHOENIX – A national industry group has honored the Arizona Department of Transportation’s $30 million rehabilitation of an Interstate 15 bridge through the rugged Virgin River Gorge in far northwestern Arizona.

The American Public Works Association selected the Virgin Bridge No. 6 improvement, completed last year, as Project of the Year among transportation projects worth between $25 million and $75 million, with ADOT as the managing agency, Pulice-Wadsworth Brothers Joint Venture as primary contractor and Jacobs as primary consultant.

PHOENIX – You can buy lots of things online, at a swap meet or from a friend, but one thing you should never find is a vehicle disability plate or placard because of the strict controls placed on who’s eligible to get one.

The Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division was recently alerted to a social media post by a Phoenix-area resident attempting to sell a relative’s placard online. The ADOT Office of Inspector General has an ongoing investigation into that incident in which the placard was offered for sale for several hundred dollars.

PHOENIX – Construction of the first traffic interchange in the Laveen area for the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway will require an extended full closure of Elliot Road at 59th Avenue beginning Monday, Oct. 23.

The closure, which will last through March 2018, will allow crews to accelerate construction of one of the 13 interchanges needed for the South Mountain Freeway.

In order to build the Elliot Road traffic interchange, construction crews will complete the following work:

PHOENIX – Since it began showcasing the state’s beauty and diverse landscapes, Arizona Highways has been a collector’s item. People around the country have not only subscribed but held on to the monthly issues of the magazine, produced by the Arizona Department of Transportation, so they could go back again and again to look at the photos and read about the history.

Now Arizona Highways needs a little help finding a piece of its history, in this case a December 1930 issue to add to its digital collection.

PHOENIX ‒ The Sacaton Rest Area on Interstate 10 south of the Phoenix area is scheduled to close Wednesday, Oct. 18, for a $4 million renovation that’s expected to take six months, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Work planned for the rest area, located on both westbound and eastbound I-10 between Casa Blanca Road and State Route 387 near Casa Grande, includes upgrades to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, replacing a water line, replacing the septic tanks and sewer lines, upgrading the electrical and mechanical systems, and painting.

PHOENIX – Commuting between the West Valley and downtown Phoenix can be a grind due to heavy traffic on Interstate 10. With construction underway on connections between I-10 and the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, there’s even more reason for motorists to consider alternative ways of getting where they need to be.

PHOENIX – Northbound Seventh Avenue is narrowed to one lane at the Interstate 17 interchange in Phoenix, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Drivers should consider using other northbound routes in the area approaching downtown Phoenix, including Central Avenue and Seventh Street.

The northbound Seventh Avenue left turning lanes to the northbound I-17 on-ramp are closed. The southbound I-17 off-ramp also is restricted with one of two left turn lanes to northbound Seventh Avenue closed.

GOODYEAR – Major work on the freeway interchange connecting Interstate 10 and Loop 303 in the West Valley has been completed.

The Arizona Department of Transportation has now opened all four of the new ramps that allow drivers to make direct connections between I-10 and Loop 303. Three ramps were opened to traffic Sunday night, Oct. 8. Construction crews on Monday opened the fourth ramp, which connects westbound I-10 to southbound Loop 303.

A new section of Loop 303 traveling under I-10 between Thomas Road and Van Buren Street in Goodyear also is open to traffic.

PHOENIX – Whether it’s communicating with travelers during a freeway closure or pointing out that a chair obstructing travel lanes looks like it belonged to Archie Bunker, the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Twitter account is there for motorists night and day, 365 days a year.

Since @ArizonaDOT launched in 2008, more and more Arizonans have turned there to get answers and to share information, making it the most-followed state government Twitter handle in Arizona.

PHOENIX – On several hot summer mornings, biologists dressed in hiking gear searched crannies along ridges in the southwest corner of the South Mountain Park/Preserve. Their mission: finding and then relocating the elusive chuckwalla.

These large lizards, which are common in the U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico, include the orange-tailed males that are unique to the South Mountain Park/Preserve. While most animals flee when threatened, chuckwallas wedge themselves deep in cracks between rocks.