ADOT report on aggregate sources of northern Arizona

The Arizona Dept. of Transportation has released a 129-page report documenting aggregate resources in northern Arizona to assess what could be available for road construction and repair. [Right, locations of mineral aggregate locations identified in report]   The challenge for ADOT is less about the presence of aggregate materials and more about finding them in locations where they can be mined.

The abstract states:

Constructing and maintaining Arizona’s highway system requires a dependable, abundant supply of mineral aggregates, borrow, quarried rock, and other materials. Finding such sources is important in northern Arizona, where suitable materials may be limited and land jurisdictions, including sovereign American Indian nations and lands administered by the State of Arizona and federal agencies, are difficult to develop for such purposes. The Flagstaff, Globe, Holbrook, Kingman, and Prescott districts of the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), encompassing Apache, Coconino, Mohave, Navajo, and Yavapai counties, may require up to 46 million tons of material for pavement preservation, safety improvements, widening, or reconstruction of traffic interchanges on the Interstate system and maintenance over the next 20 years. This study focuses on potential sources within a 10‐mile‐wide corridor along the existing Interstates, U.S. highways, and state routes in the five‐county project area; the project team identified 285 sites that may be suitable. The team estimates that these sites may require three months to three years to develop, depending on the time needed for environmental clearance and permitting, site exploration and characterization, and site development, including building haul routes to move materials for highway projects. An implementation plan was outlined for ADOT that provides a process to determine which sites should be reviewed and cleared.

The report is available online (click on link below). It was prepared for ADOT by Jeff Swan, with Swan Consulting, G. Bruce Kay with Ninyo & Moore and George A. Ruffner & Amanda Sydloski at EcoPlan Associates, Inc.

Ref:  "Aggregate Sources for Construction andMaintenance in Northern Arizona," ADOT SPR500, April, 2014