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.

Building a Freeway: Batch plant

Here we are, blogging about pavement … again! When we told you there’s a lot to learn on the subject, we weren’t joking.

Today’s topic has to do with how concrete pavement is made – it all starts at the batch plant.

A batch plant is where concrete pavement is mixed before it’s trucked to where it is needed. On some ADOT projects, contractors will utilize a portable plant (which is what you see in the video above).

These portable batch plants are a huge time and money saver, allowing contractors to mix concrete on a project site instead of purchasing and hauling it from an outside source. According to one estimate, mixing on site saves about 20 percent over what it would cost to purchase from a commercial plant.

But, how does the concrete actually get made? We’ll borrow an explanation from this blog post to tell you:

If you can imagine mixing a giant cake, you can visualize how concrete is made.

First the contractor has the components – cement, fly ash, aggregate (rocks) and water – delivered and placed in stockpiles around the plant. The material is then loaded onto a conveyor belt and weighed by a computer before being placed in the mixer.

In just a minute and a half the concrete is ready to be loaded onto a transport vehicle and then placed on the roadway.

But, wait … there’s more.
Want to learn some additional facts about pavement? Check out our previous posts. We’ve blogged about quiet pavement, pavement at airports, materials testing, pavement markers, the impact climate can have on pavement and how crews make sure pavement is as smooth as possible.

Arizona makes the top 10 for bicycle friendliness

This booklet and other resources for

bicyclists can be found through ADOT's 

Bicycle & Pedestrian Program webpage.

The weather is beautiful right now in much of our state – what better time to step out and explore the scenery on two wheels!

Plus, if you’re out riding your bike you can see for yourself why Arizona has been ranked number 10 in the country for bicycle friendliness by the League of American Bicyclists in their annual survey.

That’s a jump from number 14 in 2012…

Many factors are considered when ranking a state’s bicycle friendliness, including the plans and programs that are in place to keep riders safe and to encourage bike riding.

ADOT constructs and manages the bicycle infrastructure along Arizona’s state highway system and has implemented a Bicycle and Pedestrian Program as part of the agency’s Multimodal Planning Division. Through this program, ADOT works to make improvements statewide and focuses on three main goals: increasing bicycle and pedestrian trips, improving safety and adding infrastructure.

“One of our most notable accomplishments this past year was the completion of a Bicycle Safety Action Plan to improve bicyclist safety on Arizona’s highways,” said Michael Sanders, ADOT’s bicycle and pedestrian program coordinator. “The goal is to reduce the number of bicyclist fatalities and injury crashes with motor vehicles. We ‘crash-typed’ nearly 750 reported crashes that occurred over a five-year period to better define the sequence of events leading to the collisions. For example, we found that more than half of all crashes occurred while a motorist was making a right turn. ADOT’s new plan consists of action items addressing potential changes to policies and education programs, along with new tools to improve bicyclist safety.”

In addition to implementing the Bicycle Safety Action Plan last fall, ADOT is working on updating its Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan this spring. ADOT works in partnership with state and local agencies to develop these plans, and to further education and enforcement efforts to keep bicyclists and motorists safe by sharing the road and learning the rules of the road. Arizona was the second state in the nation to adopt a three-foot passing law in 2000, which mandates that all motorists must give bicyclists at least three feet of space when passing.