Portions of Valley freeways will close this afternoon and Saturday morning for funeral processions

ADOT works to avoid freeway restrictions over holiday weekends, but special circumstances this afternoon and tomorrow morning will necessitate temporary closures on eastbound Loop 101 and southbound I-17.

The closures are for the funeral processions of two dedicated public servants.

The procession for fallen Phoenix firefighter Brad Harper will make its way along sections of eastbound Loop 101 and southbound I-17 this afternoon (May 24).

Drivers with plans to use either of the freeways carrying the procession are asked to prepare for closures, scheduled to be in place after 3 p.m. Drivers are urged to consider adjusting travel plans between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. and to use alternate routes.

At the conclusion of the service at Christ’s Church of the Valley, 7007 W. Happy Valley Road in Peoria, 67th Avenue will be closed in both directions between Happy Valley Road and Loop 101 while the procession is approaching and entering eastbound Loop 101, according to the city of Glendale.

The procession will use the eastbound Loop 101 on-ramp at 67th Avenue. Eastbound Loop 101 will be closed between 75th Avenue and I-17 until the line of emergency and other vehicles makes its way onto southbound I-17.

The procession will continue south on I-17 to the McDowell Road exit. Vehicles will then go west on McDowell Road and south on 27th Avenue before entering Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery north of Van Buren Street.

Sections of the closed freeways will reopen as soon as possible after the procession has passed.

On Saturday (May 25), a procession for fallen Phoenix police officer Daryl Raetz, is scheduled to start by late morning along eastbound Loop 101 in the north Valley.

Following a 9 a.m. service, also at Christ’s Church of the Valley, eastbound Loop 101 will be closed between 75th Avenue and Seventh Street to allow the procession to make its way to Phoenix Memorial Park, where officer Raetz will be laid to rest.

CMAR method is beneficial for certain projects

Typically, many ADOT projects follow a common course: Design – Bid – Build.

That means ADOT (or a consulting engineer working for the department) designs the project, solicits bids and then awards a contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder to build the project.

While this method works well for many projects, some situations call for different options…

You might remember that we told you about one of those options – the Design-Build process – a while back. It involves pairing a design team with a construction team to create one team that works together and delivers a freeway project from beginning to end.

But, there are more than two ways to build a road and today, we’re focusing on yet another alternative contracting method: Construction Manager at Risk.

Work on N20 detour to start soon

Drivers who have been impacted by the closure on US 89 might be happy to know that work is beginning on Navajo Route 20…

That means crews soon will start paving the mostly dirt road so it can (in a few months) serve as an interim detour route until repairs are finished on US 89.

Once complete, the N20 detour will reduce travel time for motorists heading to and from Page. And, yes, it will be able to accommodate the anticipated traffic volumes, including commercial truck traffic.

However, we’re not there yet, and we’re asking motorists to avoid using N20 until the upgrades are finished (likely by later this summer). Because, not only is it still a mostly dirt road, but very soon it will become an active work zone and delays are expected to take up to an hour.

After the reconstruction of US89 is finished, N20 (which will be dubbed Temporary US 89, or US 89T, once it’s paved) will be relinquished to the Navajo Nation.

There is no timetable yet for reopening the portion of US 89 damaged by a February landslide, but we’ll definitely keep you posted. ADOT is committed to restoring this important travel route as soon as safely as possible. In the meantime, drivers can look forward to the shorter and more direct N20 detour.

For the latest news and information related to US 89, visit azdot.gov/US89.

Work continues on SR 24 in Mesa

When construction wraps up on SR 24 later this year in southeast Mesa, the new freeway will span one mile between Loop 202 and Ellsworth Road.

Known also as the Gateway Freeway, SR 24 certainly will help alleviate traffic congestion in the area. However, that’s not the only reason why this project is valuable to the East Valley...

“It will become a gateway, if you will, to the farther southeast Valley,” says Citizen’s Transportation Oversight Committee Chairman Roc Arnett in the video above. “It will help the airport, it will help Queen Creek, it will help southeast Mesa, it will help Apache Junction.”

Project acceleration
Work started just over a year ago even though SR 24 originally wasn't scheduled for construction until 2016.

The schedule was moved up because Mesa used Highway Project Advancement Notes to get things started a few years early.

Defining bridge inspection terms

Inspectors examine a bridge
damaged by a crash.

You may have heard the terms “structurally deficient” or “functionally obsolete” in reference to bridges…

While the words themselves don’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence in the structures they’re describing, you can rest assured knowing that these classifications do not mean that a bridge is unsafe.

We’ll delve into the definitions of the terms in a minute, but first let’s take a look at bridge sufficiency ratings and how they’re used by bridge inspectors.

ADOT’s Bridge Management Section handles the bridge inspection program in Arizona. This group is responsible for safety bridge inspections on all the bridges on the state highway system and the majority of the bridges that are owned or operated by local municipalities in the state.

Graffiti shields used to deter sign taggers

Shields are being used in a few locations to combat graffiti.

A whole lot of work goes into making sure ADOT signs stay readable, reflective and in good repair…

That’s why it is so upsetting to see one of those signs after it has been defaced with graffiti.

Graffiti, besides often being an eyesore, can affect a sign’s readability by obstructing the text. And, did you know that spray paint damages a sign’s reflective coating making it more difficult to read at night?

In addition to all that, cleaning graffiti from a sign (or replacing that sign all together) can require a freeway closure, which costs time and money, but is necessary for the safety of the ADOT crews doing the work as well as the driving public.

So, if graffiti is the problem, what’s the answer?

Depending on your commute, you may already have noticed one solution being tested on a few of the state’s highway signs.

Portion of Loop 303 project now nearly 90 percent complete

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.