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AMERICAN FORK -- A construction project along Interstate 15 in Utah County is making obvious progress. The Utah Department of Transportation is building some very big overpass bridges as part of a major project near American Fork.
UDOT has found success in building bridges off site, then moving them into places along Interstate 215 and Interstate 80. It saves time, long closures and headaches for drivers. Now builders will attempt moving some very long bridges into place over I-15.
If you saw the Utah Highway Patrol car escorting a very long, oversized load traveling south on Interstate 15 Thursday, its final destination is in American Fork. It's a critical part of a new bridge being built at what UDOT calls a "bridge farm."
"They see these structures going up here and think maybe we are building a bridge over here, and actually we are building a bridge here to move over there into place, and it's actually going to be just south of the existing I-15 bridge," said Joe Walker, with Access Utah County.
UDOT will use self-propelled modular transports to slowly move the new bridges to the freeway. The two sections, at 190 feet each, will be the longest UDOT has ever built off site and moved into place.
"We've done a lot of testing, and a lot of science has gone into this," Walker said. "We know we can do it, but it's going to be interesting to see how it happens. We've never done anything quite this long before."
"It's safe. It's efficient. It's going to function great, but it's going to take some getting used to for those who are going to be driving it. With two bridges parallel and the traffic flipping over, it's going to take some adjustment," Walker said.
It will take a couple of months to actually build the bridges in the nearby bridge farm. When they are ready, the bridges will be moved into place in a matter of hours, requiring the freeway to be shut down for a relatively short time. A closure expected to happen in the middle of the night sometime in October.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
