The Arizona Department of Transportation is restoring greenery along a newly opened freeway around the south side of metro Phoenix.
The department says more than 1,000 cacti, trees and other native plants removed from the path of the South Mountain freeway are being replanted along the 22-mile route.
The plants saved for landscaping include saguaro, ocotillo and barrel cactus and palo verde, mesquite and ironwood trees.
ADOT's chief landscape architect, LeRoy Brady, says the agency retained saguaros of any size to avoid losing their decades of growth.
The department said replanting began in December.
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