With more than 7,000 cubic yards (5,350 m3) of shotcrete to be used for slope reinforcement in the Mesa­Payson 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.