Daily Archives: March 17, 2017

Create your own luck: Drive sober on St. Patrick’s Day

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Don’t rely on luck or four-leaf clovers to stay safe on St. Patrick’s Day.

If your plans include an evening out, have fun, but make smart decisions before getting in a vehicle. Designate a driver or call a taxi or rideshare service.

Did you know that alcohol-related crashes in Arizona historically spike on St. Patrick’s Day?

To promote smart driving decisions, ADOT will display this St. Patrick’s Day-themed safety message on Dynamic Message Signs statewide.

While leprechauns might be difficult to find, state and local law enforcement will be easy to spot. The Arizona Department of Public Safety will have an enhanced presence on highways, targeting impairment and other dangerous driving behavior, and the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety is working with State Troopers, police officers and deputy sheriffs on a statewide DUI enforcement campaign.

New virtual tour of South Mountain Freeway is online now

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PHOENIX – As the Loop South Mountain Freeway moves toward completion in late 2019, a new flyover animation reflects updated plans for the 22-mile-long corridor.

The six-and-a-half minute virtual tour of the South Mountain Freeway, the largest single freeway project in state history, is available at SouthMountainFreeway.com.

It updates a 2013 video completed in conjunction with the publication of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement by the Arizona Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration, and before much of the final design work had been completed.

Some of the key design modifications and additions highlighted in the latest video include:

  • Aesthetic and landscaping treatments reflecting neighboring communities
  • Direct HOV lane access near 59th Avenue from the South Mountain Freeway to and from downtown Phoenix
  • A six-mile-long shared-used path in Ahwatukee, located south of the freeway between 40th Street and 17th Avenue
  • Changes to the alignment that reduce the amount of right-of-way required
  • Interchange reconfigurations, including diverging diamond interchanges at Desert Foothills Parkway and 17th Avenue, moving the interchange at 51st Avenue to Estrella Drive, and realigning the freeway at 59th Avenue south of Elliot Road
  • Locations of sound walls to mitigate freeway noise
  • A city of Phoenix pedestrian bridge north of Broadway Road to connect the Rio del Rey neighborhoods in Phoenix.

The updated video doesn’t reflect design changes made after January. As a design-build project, construction can start in some areas of the project while design is still being finalized elsewhere. This innovative contracting method pairs the design and construction teams to deliver a project from beginning to end. This approach is intended to save time and money by overlapping the design and construction phases.

With the launch of the new video, the project webpage at SouthMountainFreeway.com has other new content, including aesthetic renderings and construction photos.

The South Mountain Freeway will provide a long-planned direct link between the East Valley and West Valley and a much-needed alternative to Interstate 10 through downtown Phoenix as it runs east and west along Pecos Road and then north and south between 55th and 63rd avenues, connecting with I-10 on each end.

Approved by Maricopa County voters in 1985 and again in 2004 as part of a comprehensive regional transportation plan, the South Mountain Freeway will complete the Loop 202 and Loop 101 freeway system in the Valley.

Report: Arizonans drove almost 67 billion miles in 2016

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PHOENIX – Drivers covered nearly 67 billion miles on Arizona roads in 2016, the state’s fifth consecutive annual increase, according to a Federal Highway Administration estimate.

Part of a Traffic Volume Trends report estimating a record 3.2 trillion miles driven on U.S. public roads last year, the Arizona figure demonstrates the importance of maintaining and improving the state’s transportation system, said John Halikowski, director of the Arizona Department of Transportation.

“Highways are Key Commerce Corridors that drive economic growth and jobs,” Halikowski said. “A well-built and well-maintained transportation system positions this growing state to capitalize on its proximity to major markets in California and Texas as well as south of the border.”

ADOT maintains all state and federal routes in Arizona, including six interstate highways.

The estimated number of vehicle miles traveled in Arizona in 2016 – 66.86 billion – represented an increase of more than 1.8 billion miles from 2015, or 2.8 percent. Since 2011, the number of miles navigated by Arizona drivers has increased by 7.28 billion, or 12 percent.

The 13-state West, including Arizona, had the greatest increase in travel compared with 2015, according to the Federal Highway Administration’s report.

ADOT reports vehicle miles traveled for the previous year each June. The agency’s figures also show a steady increase in recent years.