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SANDY -- Sandy residents and anyone passing through the city have been sitting through major gridlock lately because of the many construction projects happening at once. Sandy City officials say they should be done by early winter, but that's later than many people thought.
We talked to drivers and business owners who are fed up with all the construction. They say there's no escaping it because there's a project on every street.
Sandy resident Charity Wright said, "It is everywhere. It's like every turn you take you're like, ‘No, no more road construction.'"
Byron Pixton said, "It's terrible. You gotta wait through three, four lights."
"It's frustrating, but you get used to it and just deal with it and just hope it's done soon," Kathy Hanks said.
One of the main thoroughfares getting a facelift is 700 East. Wednesday, at the 10600 South intersection, drivers weren't pleased with the progress. The city understands.
Trina Duerksen, with Sandy City, said, "We've received quite a few comments during the course of these projects, and it is very frustrating. I don't blame them."
Sandy has nine road construction projects listed on its website. All are under way or soon to be. The three big ones are 700 East, 1300 East and 11400 South.
Sandy managers say the projects are funded by different entities and it just so happened that all the money came through at the same time, meaning lots of construction simultaneously.
"What has happened with this one is for years they've been on the table, they've been on the projects and all of a sudden, both of them are there. So it has been problematic," Duerksen said.
From Chopper 5, you can see miles and miles of orange cones along 1300 East. Crews are expanding the road to fit five lanes, improving the landscape and installing raised medians. It's a similar situation on 700 East, just a shorter portion at 14 blocks. Both are supposed to be wrapped up by early winter.
Kim Smart, the owner of Chocolate Cottage in Sandy, was given an August end date. That's long gone.
"Sales are down, but, like I said, we'd be out of business if we didn't have loyal customers," she said. "It's our livelihood and it's something we're passionate about, and we take a lot of pride in what we do here, so yeah it hurts."
Sandy City officials say just like the State Street project a couple years ago, these roads will be beautiful when they're finished. Until then, expect lots of traffic.
E-mail: ngonzales@ksl.com
