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Cutting across the northern third of the state, Interstate 40 in Arizona is 360 miles long. In northeast Arizona, Interstate 40 is under a heavy load, serving between 20,750 to 27,600 vehicles per day, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). A high percentage of that traffic is trucks and tractor-trailers.

Under this strain, Interstate 40 has reached the point of needing repair. "We had a serious problem because of bad weather in the winter of 2004," says Ed Wilson, senior resident engineer with the ADOT Holbrook District. "The Department of Public Safety had to close sections of the road because there were so many potholes."

These sections of road are located between McCarroll and Querino, and Querino and Hawthorne. In the fall of 2005, the Querino to Hawthorne project was in design but was accelerated because of the urgent need to fix the road. Spot milling and filling was done on the McCarroll to Querino section of the road that had potholes to allow time to obtain funding and design the corrective project. The Querino to Hawthorne project covered 11 miles of eastbound and westbound traffic.

A second previous mill-and-fill project was a 12-mile stretch between Pinta and McCarroll. Meadow Valley Contractors Inc. has now been contracted by ADOT to mill and fill an 11.7-mile section between McCarroll and Querino, bridging the previous projects together.

Wilson says sections of roadway renovations are scheduled based on need, not years in service. These three sections happened to be in need of repair and connected to each other. "State materials personnel come to the Holbrook district, where these projects are located, every year and go out with the district engineer and drive all of our routes," says Wilson. "They prioritize what roads need to be repaired. There's only so much money allocated every year to pavement preservation and then roads are monitored to see where they can get the best use of that money."