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Sam Penrod Reporting There's unexpected good news for commuters in Utah County. UDOT will open a new lane this weekend in an attempt to cut down on the gridlock during the evening commute.
Evening is when the northbound traffic starts backing up near UVSC in Orem and all the way to the Pleasant Grove exit. But tonight could be the last night of what's become a nightly mess on the freeway. UDOT has decided to open up a new lane on a four mile stretch of I-15, from the Lindon exit to 500 East in American Fork.
This is part of the new car pool lane construction project, but this particular area has no bridges that have to be modified and the paving work is now finished. So that will mean now there will be a total of four lanes northbound in an area of the freeway that always seems to be in a bottleneck from 4:00 in the afternoon until 7:00 at night.
Geoff Dupaix, UDOT: "That's what our hope is that by opening up that one lane, even though it's a four mile segment that will provide enough relief for motorists and alleviate the congestion for northbound I-15."
For now the lane will be open to all cars, until the entire project is finished next summer, when it will become carpool only.
UDOT does not plan to do the same thing in the southbound lanes, however, because construction work is still going on where the new car pool lane is being built. But those orange cones in the inside northbound lane will be gone Sunday night, and so hopefully on Monday night it will be an easier drive home for commuters.
