With more than 7,000 cubic yards (5,350 m3) of shotcrete to be used for slope reinforcement in the MesaÂPayson Highway expansion in Arizona, it may be the biggest shotcrete application in the country. The project consists of shotcreting thirteen freshly-cut mountainsides in the Kitty Joe Canyon of the Matazel Mountain Range on Highway 87 between the cities of Mesa and Payson. The total cost of the 17-mile (27 km) road expansion is $55 million. “The entire project will take more than seven months to complete,” said Mickey Garner, president of Shotcrete Specialties, the sub-contractor. “And we’d be done if it hadn’t been for a freak snow last spring,” she continued. The area had about 3 feet (1 m) of snow just as the company was starting the project.