ADOT wins ASU sustainability award for Navajo Nation bridge

PHOENIX — The Arizona Department of Transportation has won a sustainability award for a Navajo Nation bridge that used cutting-edge technology to reduce erosion.

Arizona State University’s Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering awarded ADOT with its Sustainable Infrastructure Award for the Laguna Creek Bridge, a U.S. 160 bridge project that created a sustainable, resilient solution to erosion from a meandering creek on the Navajo Nation, according to a press release.

Laguna Creek Bridge is located about 25 miles east of Kayenta in northeastern Arizona.

“What makes this bridge unique is it was one of many structures on our system that serve remote populations,” Steven Olmsted, National Environmental Policy Act assignment manager with ADOT Environmental Planning, told KTAR News 92.3 FM  on Monday. “This particular structure was on 160 and it was a particularly important location for the Navajo Nation.”

ADOT, coordinating with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Arizona Water Science group, made the Laguna Creek Bridge a pilot site to test next-generation monitoring technologies because of its success.

These include sensors and gauges providing real-time surface flow data during and after storms, drones, video cameras, laser-aided surveying and 3D surface modeling.

Faculty reviewed nominations from public, private, nonprofit and academic organizations on innovative approaches that advance sustainability in infrastructure.

“Beyond the Laguna Creek Bridge project, integrating this approach with ADOT’s design and operation of highway infrastructure will help enhance sustainability and resilience by looking at historic, current and potential conditions, including the impacts of extreme weather,” Olmsted said in the release.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Mitchell Zimmermann contributed to this report. 

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