LEHI — Utah Highway Patrol troopers have a message for drivers: slow down on I-15 through Lehi, or you could get a ticket with a hefty fine.
The construction zone has a speed limit of 60 miles per hour, but Sgt. Brett Christensen with UHP says some drivers zip through at 80 or 90 instead.
“It puts the motorists as well as construction workers in a lot more danger,” Christensen says.
John Gleason with the Utah Department of Transportation says the five-mile stretch is currently UDOT’s biggest project, with 17 bridges and nearly two more years of construction to go.
“We’re trying to get people to slow down here,” he says.
Gleason worries that some drivers think an added lane equals permission to go faster.
Fines are double for speeding through the construction zone, but Christensen says pulling people over and giving them tickets or educating them isn’t enough.
“We can’t be everywhere all the time, so we are desperately asking for people’s help on this, in policing themselves,” he adds.
Christensen says construction workers approached UHP with concerns about speeding drivers through the area.
“They are working right next to traffic that’s going by them at freeway speeds. We’d like to bring that down,” he says. “If people could help us by planning ahead, giving themselves extra time, and going through here at the posted speed limit, that keeps everyone out here a little safer.”
Zero Fatalities, a group that works to reduce traffic-related deaths in Utah, says speed is a factor in 40% of Utah’s fatal crashes.