New special license plates now available

Four new specialty plates are available to Arizona drivers.

Whether you want to show some school pride, support a cause or cheer on your favorite team, there’s a good chance you’ll find a specialty license plate to help you do so.

Arizona drivers now have even more designs to consider… four new specialty plates (Arizona Centennial, Boy Scouts of Arizona, Hunger Relief and Channel 8 PBS) are available starting today!

You can take a look at all the specialty plates over on the MVD webpage. There’s a lot to choose from … but, have you ever wondered how a specialty license plate is chosen to go into production?

Even though ADOT’s Motor Vehicle Division issues license plates, ADOT and MVD do not decide which plates get the OK.

That’s a common misconception, according to Special Plates Program Manager Michael Meier.

“We don’t decide,” he said. “That’s a function of the legislative process.”

Communication saving Seattle from Viadoom

By Nicole Sherbert

ADOT Assistant Communication Director

We've been pretty quiet on the blog this week. (And, no, we haven't been sitting around reading our borrowed copy of "The benefits of high-volume fly ash" or re-watching our ridiculously awesome caisson video.

We're working on a few stories for next week and we do have a pretty big traffic alert to let you know about, which we'll get to in a minute, but first we want to take a minute to give some props to our counterparts up in Washington State.


If you haven't yet heard, last Friday night WSDOT closed the Alaskan Way viaduct -- one of the two main north-south freeways through downtown Seattle -- for demolition and ultimate replacement with a waterfront tunnel.

With a typical workday traffic level of more than 110,000 vehicles and because the closure would span a work week, the viaduct's closure -- deemed "Via Con Dios" -- had the potential to far exceed expectations of last summer's Los Angeles-based prequel, "Carmageddon."



WSDOT's job (in addition, of course, to completing the work)? Informing the roughly 3.5 million Seattle-area residents, plus the additional tens of thousands of potential drivers visiting the area, of the closure and trying to mitigate at least some of the inevitable gridlock.

Their communication efforts have been nothing short of genius...



Paving work on US 60 is winding down

Millings from the old, worn roadway
are used to build up the road's shoulder.
This practice helps prevent erosion.

We write a lot about building new roads on this blog, but equally important is the maintenance of the state’s existing highways – that’s part of ADOT’s job, too!

Maintaining what we have prevents the state’s roads from deteriorating to a condition that would be unsafe and costly to repair.

A good example is currently under construction in Pinal County and close to completion. A 12-mile, four-lane stretch of US 60 is being repaved in the Gold Canyon area, east of Apache Junction (between Siphon Draw and State Route 79).

Work on this project started in July and consisted of milling and paving the roadway …

Basically, that means crews stripped several inches of old, worn pavement off the existing road and then placed new asphalt pavement on the roadway surface.

An interesting note on this project is that the old asphalt getting scraped away (millings) is being recycled and added into the new asphalt mixture. Recycling reduces the amount of asphalt needed for the new pavement.

ADOT library is focused on transportation research

Librarian Dale Steele oversees the collection at the ADOT Research
Center Library. The library recently moved into a space previously
occupied by the Roadrunner Cafe, a cafeteria for ADOT employees.
The cafe moved out, but the sign stayed behind!  

The ADOT Research Center Library might not carry any best-sellers, but where else are you going to find a title like, “Benefits of high volume fly ash: new concrete mixtures provide financial, environmental and performance gains”?

That study, published by the Federal Highway Administration in 2010, is on the shelves alongside thousands of publications – all of them focused on transportation planning and engineering.

Established in 1989 as part of the ADOT Research Center, the library is open to ADOT employees, transportation faculty in Arizona universities and others with an interest in transportation.

The goal is to keep a collection that not only preserves the information ADOT produces, but also includes reports from other state DOTs, transportation boards, federal transportation agencies and professional societies.

Librarian Dale Steele says having all this research and information on hand is valuable to ADOT employees who work each day on the state’s transportation system … it gives them recent data and a look at what other transportation departments are doing.

Building a Freeway: Massive underground caissons give bridges strength

You know when you drive under or over a freeway bridge that it’s a massive structure…

There are the two abutments (the upright supporting structures at each end that carries the load of the bridge span), there are usually center columns or piers, and, of course, the girders and the bridge deck (the part you actually drive across).

The girders and the deck make up the bridge’s superstructure. (You can tell how much goes into a bridge’s superstructure by checking out what goes into taking one down.)

But what you don’t see is that buried beneath the bridge is part of the equally impressive substructure formed by rows of caissons – massive steel-and-concrete pillars that support and lock in place the abutments.

Popular route to Grand Canyon slated for improvement

According to estimates, nearly 2.5 million vehicles pass through the very small town of Tusayan, Arizona each year…

So, where’s everybody going?

They're typically headed to one of the country’s biggest tourist destinations -- the Grand Canyon.

One of the main routes to the popular south entrance happens to be State Route 64, which takes motorists right through the middle of Tusayan (pop. 560).

The small town gets a lot of pedestrian and vehicle traffic and understandably there have been some concern related to all the activity on SR 64.

ADOT seeks opinions as it studies future of I-17 corridor

Click map for larger

view of study area.

If you regularly drive I-17 between the Maricopa Traffic Interchange (the Split) and Loop 101 (Agua Fria Freeway) in north Phoenix, you probably already realize the freeway is operating at (or near) total capacity.

Now, just try to imagine what traffic will be like on that stretch by 2035!

That’s when the average daily traffic demand is projected to be 370,000 vehicles per day. Compare that to the numbers from 2008 when traffic volumes estimated by ADOT showed roughly 210,000 vehicles driving between the I-10 “stack” interchange and Bell Road each day.

Not only will there be more cars on the road in the future, but the average trip time within the corridor is anticipated to increase by 23 percent, which amounts to an additional hour of afternoon peak drive time between the Split and Loop 101, if no capacity improvements are made!

The I-17 Corridor Improvement Study is currently evaluating potential improvements that will help future I-17 congestion in Phoenix.

Although ADOT has not made any decisions yet, there are three alternatives being studied – two build options and one no-build alternative. The easiest way you can let us know what you think is by taking our quick online survey.

Intercity Rail Study examines environmental impact, alternatives

Information on the Intercity Rail study was available during

 the Tucson Meet Yourself event Oct. 14-16. There are still

opportunities to attend a public meeting. See our previous

blog post for the schedule of upcoming events.

Earlier we told you about the new intercity rail study that’s going to help ADOT examine the possibility of a new transportation link between Phoenix and Tucson. (By the way, there’s still plenty of time to comment and we hope you will!)

But, today, we really want to focus on why ADOT conducts studies like this one.

It all starts with something called the National Environmental Policy Act...

NEPA was passed in 1969 and is designed to make sure all levels of government take the environment into consideration when developing projects that involve federal involvement.

Federal actions that are likely to have an impact on the surrounding environment are subject by NEPA to the Environmental Impact Statement process, which is what ADOT is working toward developing with the Intercity Rail Study.

One of the purposes of an EIS is to identify impacts a project might have on its surroundings.

Improvements on the way to Tucson area I-10

Construction got started earlier this fall on a project that’s designed to bring some big improvements for a stretch of Interstate-10 in the Tucson area.

The I-10 widening project from Ruthrauff Road to Prince Road will not only expand the freeway to four lanes in each direction, but will also reconstruct the Prince Road traffic interchange so the road will pass over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and I-10. New landscaping and entrance and exit ramp improvements are also part of the plan.

Right now traffic delays at the Prince Road/I-10 intersection are a frequent occurrence ... that’s because more than 40 trains pass through each day. This often causes traffic to back up onto nearby I-10. (Union Pacific Railroad plans to double the tracks in the near future; so many more trains are expected to pass through the intersection in years to come.)

HOV lanes open up in Chandler and the West Valley

Several miles of new HOV lanes opened earlier this week in Chandler and the West Valley … just in time for the Monday morning commute!

ADOT opened the new stretches of High Occupancy Vehicle lanes along the Loop 202 Santan Freeway in Chandler and the Loop 101 Agua Fria Freeway in the Glendale and Peoria area.

ADOT launches intercity rail study looking at potential Phoenix to Tucson link

What are your thoughts on the possibility of a new transportation connection between Phoenix and Tucson?

If you travel between these two major metropolitan areas, the Arizona Department of Transportation wants to hear from you!

Today ADOT launches a series of public involvement tools to help explore the different travel options that could exist between the two cities. Those options might include rail, transit, or even a no-action plan.

Together with the Federal Railroad Administration and the Federal Transit Administration, ADOT hopes to use the public feedback to determine some potential corridors and narrow down the types of transportation options to explore. The feedback will also assist in completing an alternatives analysis and an environmental impact study.

So...how can you get involved?

Tonight is the first of 12 open house events being held over the next month in Pima, Pinal and Maricopa counties. 

Landform graphics help with dust, erosion (and they look nice, too)

Crews work on the large landform graphics along I-17.

As ADOT employees, we naturally get a lot of transportation-related questions thrown our way by friends and family... it’s just something that comes with the job!

By far, one of the most frequently asked questions has to do with HOV lanes and why ADOT builds them after the freeway is constructed (we answer that one here, by the way).

But, another question we regularly get focuses on the rock landscaping surrounding our Valley freeways.

People want to know why we don’t just use trees and shrubs instead of rock. Others wonder why we landscape the area at all.

Well, here’s the answer...

Building a Freeway: Pre-wetting the soil leads to solid foundation

When ADOT has a freeway to build, many steps must be taken long before any asphalt is paved.

One of those initial tasks involves pre-wetting the soil, which entails pretty much exactly what you think it does … crews put sprinkler systems into place and water the dirt!

Just how long crews need to water depends on the type of soil they’re dealing with, but usually this step takes a few days.

Pre-wetting the dirt makes it easier to move, helps the crews eliminate dust pollution and allows them to bring the soil’s moisture content up to a level that enhances compaction.

If you’ve ever built a sand castle, you know it’s much easier to work with sand that’s a little wet (but not too wet). Not only is it easier to build with compared to dry, loose grains of sand, but it also gives your castle a stronger foundation to build upon.

The same principal holds true out in the middle of a road construction site …

From start to finish: How ADOT builds a freeway

Crews work on a portion of Loop 303. Keep reading our new
"Building a Freeway" series to find out what they're doing.

When ADOT builds a road, the work gets started years (sometimes decades) ahead of any real construction …

It all begins with the planning phase, which includes everything from determining where a new roadway is most needed to taking a look at available funding.

From there, environmental studies are completed, public involvement is conducted and preliminary plans get designed. ADOT continues to engage the public as engineers begin developing more detailed project plans. Through each phase of the project, ADOT coordinates with other government agencies, developer/landowners and utility companies.