(Photo: UDOT crews working the ground for the Mountain View Corridor extension. Credit: Paul Nelson)
SALT LAKE COUNTY – So, where are the traffic nightmares expected to be this construction season? UDOT is spending over two billion dollars on the roads beginning this year, and they’re naming their biggest projects of 2019.
Number one on the list is the expansion of the Mountain View Corridor between 4100 South and S.R. 201. It will have two lanes in both directions, along with walking and biking trails. Plus, there will be 13 new highway bridges and six new pedestrian bridges. This project alone is going to cost UDOT roughly $335 million.
Some of the other projects are brand new, while others have been going on for a while. For instance, crews will be expanding express lanes into Davis and Weber counties, and I-15 is being widened through Lehi’s “Tech Corridor.” Even though drivers have seen plenty of orange barrels there before, Deputy Director of Engineering and Operations Jason Davis says drivers still need to be mindful of those areas.
“They may be used to construction happening there, but they don’t know the different changes. We change lanes and we change striping. Things are changing quite often and people really need to be attentive when they go through any construction zone,” Davis says.
They plan on making a major change to northbound I-15 by adding a new collector-style road between 9400 South and I-215. Davis says it will look similar to the collector ramp already in place between 2100 South and 900 South.
“It helps people to travel through that area that maybe don’t need to get on I-15,” he adds.
Engineers are also getting ready for projects in southern Utah, specifically in Washington County. Davis says they’re building the final segment of S.R. 7 which will connect to I-15. He says it will look similar to I-215 in northern Utah, and give drivers more options to get around the area. Plus, there will be a new interchange at mile marker 16.
“That’s the exit you take to get to Zion National Park. There are millions of people that are going there every year,” says Davis.
Also, they’re going to do maintenance projects on bridge joints over I-80 from State Street to 1300 East, and replace more bridges on I-80 near S.R. 36 in Tooele County.
Davis says, “Because of the way we’re building those structures, it takes a little bit longer to get the soil to be compacted the way it needs to be so that bridges don’t move after they’re built.”