The Arizona Department of Transportation has advised drivers that all traffic-control and vehicle-size restrictions will be lifted on State Route 89A in Oak Creek Canyon by the end of the day on Monday, Dec. 19.
While SR 89A will be open to all traffic as crews finish construction activities prior to the project shutting down for the winter, temporary lane restrictions will periodically occur through the end of December to complete some roadway elements.
The restrictions were needed as crews worked on the Pumphouse Wash Bridge rehabilitation portion of the SR 89A Oak Creek Canyon Improvements project, which also includes rockfall mitigation and erosion control work.
Construction activities will resume in spring 2023 to complete the rockfall mitigation and erosion control work.
Restrictions next year will include a week-long daytime full closure of State Route 89A just north of Sedona at milepost 375, near Midgley Bridge. Visit azdot.gov/SR89A for additional project information.
Christopher Fox Graham is the managing editor of the Sedona Rock Rocks News, The Camp Verde Journal and the Cottonwood Journal Extra. Hired by Larson Newspapers as a copy editor in 2004, he became assistant manager editor in October 2009 and managing editor in August 2013. Graham has won awards for editorials, investigative news reporting, headline writing, page design and community service from the Arizona Newspapers Association. Graham has also been featured in Editor & Publisher magazine. He lectures on journalism and First Amendment law and is a nationally recognized performance aka slam poet. Retired U.S. Army Col. John Mills, former director of Cybersecurity Policy, Strategy, and International Affairs referred to him as "Mr. Slam Poet." In January 2025, the International Astronomical Union formally named asteroid 29722 Chrisgraham (1999 AQ23) in his honor at the behest of Lowell Observatory, citing him as "an American journalist and longtime managing editor of Sedona Red Rock News. He is a nationally-recognized slam poet who has written and performed multiple poems about Pluto and other space themes."
