Let’s Get Ready to Rubble: Successfully Communicating through a Major Interstate Closure

The Arizona Department of Transportation's I-10 Broadway Curve Improvement Project’s "Ready to Rubble" event occurred in April 2023. It consisted of preparing the community for a full weekend closure of I-10 in the heart of Phoenix and adjacent to Sky Harbor Airport so that crews could take down three bridges over the freeway. Webinar attendees heard from speakers who shared the planning and execution of outreach for the event, which also included focusing on educating the public about the bridge removal process, engaging the public and project stakeholders in the project process and establishing ADOT as the state’s premier engineering firm. In 2023, outreach for the event won the TransComm award for best transportation event and was the winner in the Transportation Research Board's "Communicating Concepts with the Public" category. Tune in to learn some helpful strategies on how to successfully communicate during a planned--but major--event that impacted communities around Phoenix.