Design on 89

These days, a highway project is not a completed project without the art work. Our new SR69/89 overpass is a good example. According to the Courier, members of the local Yavapai Indian tribe were among those consulted about the designs. "The tribe wanted to show its cultural heritage and the city wanted pine trees," an ADOT spokesman told the paper.

The big circular designs are based upon Yavapai basketwork; I would guess that the frieze along the top represents the pine trees favored by the city fathers.

The deer is the one member of a chase scene on the side of the overpass that I've been able to photograph. The entire lot, best seen driving in from the north, consists of a mountain lion trailing behind the deer, who is following a coyote with a roadrunner out front. Unfortunately, all the designs are on the outside of the structure; if one is motoring into the city from Phoenix on SR 69, none of the artwork is visible!

Preview: Interchange Art

Periodically, I decide to visit the WalMart or Safeway at the north side of town, which means a trip the long way on the little Toonerville Trolley busline. Only $1, one buck, so the time is worth it. Besides, I get to review the progress of the fancy new interchange where SR69 meets SR89. Yesterday, I caught a glimpse of a great circle or, to be more precise, portion of a great circle.

As we drew closer, the scratches I had noted turned into the beginnings of a piece of the highway art mentioned recently in the Courier. And, as we rushed under the overpass, I spied other bits of art embedded in the concrete; unfortunately, we were moving too fast to get pictures. My passenger side, of course, admires art work that can been seen from a vehicle; my worrywart side, however, wonders about the safety posed by one more distraction for drivers already busy texting messages or shouting at their talk radio maestros.

While we're out at the interchange, let's consider that beautiful, wide sidewalk on the south side of the highway between the gas station and the first entrance to the mall heading east from Prescott. Questions, such as: is this short strip the entirety of the walkway? There's no room for an extension along the overpass next to the veterans' cemetery. Does it go anywhere? From anywhere? Love to get the answers.

The several routes of SR69

Standing in the Best Buy parking lot, looking to the northwest, one gets a good picture of three different versions of SR69, the highway that links Prescott to Phoenix and points south ... to Flagstaff and points north (as well as east and west). When we first arrived in these parts, the highway that we knew was the abandoned road of the great gash in the hillside that's very visible in all these pictures. I believe that the current roadbed consists largely of a widening and straightening of the route, which had previously been leveled. If you look carefully, you will see a road line higher on the hill, one which follows the contours instead of fighting them. That much older road disappears into the hillside scraped by Lowe's (below), which is too bad -- I've always had a hankering to walk it.

This view shows a couple of tight curves in the old road. Of course, when I was young, the preferred route to Prescott was what was then US 89, the famous Mexico to Canada highway. Yes, it was all curves as it passed between the Bradshaws and Prietas, but it was paved. You couldn't say that for the Black Canyon Highway, the eastern route, of which this road section is a small part. I recall hearing the grown-ups talk about the dangers of the Black Canyon road, which they wouldn't dream of driving. How the world has changed in my lifetime!!