PHOENIX — With another tax season at hand, the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division is once again offering a free online way to learn how much vehicle license tax you paid in 2015.

Vehicle Fee Recap, available through ServiceArizona.com, also allows vehicle owners to obtain the amount of any specialty license plate donations.

From the ServiceArizona home page, a customer can select the Vehicle Fee Recap link and follow the simple instructions to receive a free, printable report. The Vehicle Fee Recap report will only contain information for the previous calendar year.

Owners of vehicles registered in Arizona who wish to use the data provided in the Vehicle Fee Recap report for tax returns should seek guidance from the Internal Revenue Service, the Arizona Department of Revenue or other tax professionals.

The Vehicle Fee Recap feature of ServiceArizona is also accessible by mobile devices.

Information about all services offered by MVD can be found at azdot.gov/mvd.

PHOENIX — The Arizona Department of Transportation and partner agencies will hold an event Wednesday, Feb. 10, offering tips and tools to owners of small businesses and companies qualifying for the agency’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program.

The DBE & Small Business Transportation Expo, scheduled for 7 a.m. to noon at Glendale Civic Center, will allow attendees to learn about project opportunities, network with industry professionals and business owners and hear from transportation leaders including featured speaker ADOT Director John Halikowski. Also participating are the Phoenix Public Transit and Street Transportation departments, Valley Metro and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

“ADOT is committed to providing equal opportunity to businesses wishing to help build and sustain Arizona’s transportation infrastructure,” Halikowski said. “In federal fiscal year 2015, ADOT alone awarded $40 million in contracts to Disadvantaged Business Enterprises.”

ADOT’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program helps qualifying small businesses compete for contracts. The companies must be owned by individuals from socially and economically disadvantaged groups, including women and minorities.

“ADOT’s DBE program is critical to helping to reduce barriers to entry and teaching DBEs and small businesses how to fish, thrive and survive in the transportation industry,” said Dr. Vivien Lattibeaudiere, manager of ADOT’s Business Engagement and Compliance Office. “With access to project opportunities, they can become a meaningful part of building the transportation infrastructure in our state.”

To register for this free event, visit adotdbeexpo.com.

Although the expo is geared toward Disadvantaged Business Enterprises and small businesses, it’s open to all businesses, public agencies, vendors and community partners with an interest in the transportation industry.

For more on the workshop or ADOT’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, contact the ADOT Business Engagement and Compliance Office at 602-712-7761 or visit azdot.gov/dbe.

PHOENIX — This winter’s El Niño-fueled storms are leaving the Arizona Department of Transportation and drivers with some bumpy reminders of the one-two punch our highways take from Mother Nature and traffic.

The good news is ADOT crews regularly examine state highways for potholes and address them as quickly as possible, making short-term patches followed by long-term repairs.

But conditions that lead to potholes will keep coming, including a storm forecast for early next week, meaning drivers should be keep eye out. How many potholes develop depends in part on how much rain and snow falls.

Potholes can pop up quickly when moisture seeps into and below asphalt, which can be stressed by the combination of freezing overnight temperatures and daytime thawing. Add traffic, and that pavement can break away.

The Flagstaff area usually experiences more than 200 daily freeze-thaw cycles each year, creating a challenge for ADOT maintenance crews in that region. They have stayed busy with pothole repairs since a weeklong series of storms swept across the state in early January.

But even in the state’s warmer regions, where freezing doesn’t occur as often, pothole repair comes with the territory after storms roll through. Given predictions of a wetter-than-normal winter, crews likely will face more bumps in the road.

“Our work doesn’t stop when the snowplows are put away,” said Brent Cain, the ADOT assistant director in charge of the Transportation Systems Management and Operations Division. “Our crews put in long hours to keep the pavement as smooth as possible. It’s a real challenge to keep up with Mother Nature and heavy traffic.”

When storms create potholes, highway workers make initial temporary repairs as soon as possible with patches made from a product called Universal Paving Material, which is heated, placed in the damaged area and tamped down.

More permanent repairs come after the pavement has had time to dry out. That work involves the use of a milling machine to remove a section of pavement around the pothole. In some cases the milled pavement is reused by placing it in an asphalt recycler machine that heats the material on site. A sticky oil is sprayed into the milled area being fixed before the recycled asphalt is placed on top. Crews finish the repair by using a heavy compaction roller to smooth out the pavement.

This type of work on Phoenix-area freeways almost always takes place at night, when there is less traffic. Along a busy freeway, ADOT’s goal is make repairs with most drivers never noticing the work taking place.

Drivers who want to pass along pothole locations on state highways can notify ADOT by visiting the agency’s website at azdot.gov and clicking on “Contact” in the upper right corner of the home page.

The annual cost of pothole and other pavement repairs depends on the severity of a winter season. ADOT usually plans on approximately 10 percent of its winter operations budget being spent on pothole repair.

Since Arizona has been experiencing drier conditions over many of the past 15 years, fixing potholes hasn’t been quite the same challenge. Depending on what Mother Nature and El Niño deliver in the coming months, that could change in 2016.

PHOENIX — When fuel and other hazardous materials spill along our highways, the Arizona Department of Transportation makes sure the messes are cleaned up properly ‒ and that taxpayers aren’t stuck with the bill.

During 2015, ADOT’s Hazardous Materials Response Team saved an estimated $2.6 million by making the commercial carriers responsible or their insurance companies pay to remove contaminants from the soil. Taxpayers would otherwise be responsible for these environmental remediation costs, and the state would have been liable for fines and sanctions if the spills weren’t addressed properly.

Most of the 150 to 250 hazardous materials incidents ADOT responds to each year involve fuel spilling from trucks involved in crashes. About 40 to 50 incidents each year involve shipments of hazardous materials including fuel and acids.

Thanks to the Hazardous Materials Response Team’s efforts, all but a handful of the cleanups are paid for by commercial carriers or insurance companies.

“ADOT is committed to environmental responsibility and making the most efficient use of funds,” ADOT Director John Halikowski said. “The record of success the Hazardous Materials Response Team has established over the years preserves money for transportation needs.”

When a hazardous materials spill occurs, public safety is the first priority for ADOT and other agencies responding. After that, ADOT makes sure those responsible pay to clean up the road and right of way using contractors approved by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.

“It’s just doing the right thing not only for ADOT but for the taxpayers of Arizona,” said Travis V. Qualls, the agency’s hazardous materials response specialist. “Why should we be paying for someone else releasing a hazardous material on our property?”

ADEQ requires a higher level of cleanup in residential areas, but ADOT requires the residential standard regardless of where a spill occurs. The contractor handling a cleanup must complete work as instructed by

ADOT and provide the samples of soil before and after as well as documentation of where contaminated soil is taken.