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SALT LAKE COUNTY -- If you regularly drive Bangerter Highway, brace yourself for a major overhaul that's just getting started. UDOT is calling it Bangerter 2.0: Highway upgrade.
For traffic, it should be better than the original version. But not everyone is thrilled with the idea.
More than 50,000 vehicles travel Bangerter Highway daily. Tim Rose, UDOT Region 2 Deputy Director, says that number keeps accelerating.
7000 South intersection: June 2011 - Nov. 2011
7800 South interchange: Mid summer 2011 - late summer 2012, with major work beginning when 7000 South work is complete
"Bangerter has been extremely busy over the last five or six years," he said. "We've really noticed that."
To keep up with demand, UDOT will add four more continuous flow intersections like the one at 3500 South that was built last year.
"CFIs" move left turns out of the intersection, giving a longer green light to through traffic.
"I think people that did not think it would work well when we were putting it in, it has ended up working well for them, and they've noticed that," Rose said.
New CFIs are already under construction at 3100 South and 4100 South. They'll add CFIs at 6200 South and 7000 South this summer, then move on to an overpass at 7800 South this fall.
"We're going to put a bridge over 7800 South," says Rose.
A year from now, Bangerter motorists will cruise over 7800 South without stopping.
For more project animation videos, visit page 2 of this story.
That's great for traffic, but Ray and Vonda Patton and their neighbors have to give up a 15-foot slice of property for the sake of progress. Their garage and a shed must go. A house across the street will be torn down.
The Pattons live one street away from the intersection, and can hear it see it and smell it nearly all day long. They have mixed feelings about the construction that will start at 7800 South next fall.
"We weren't very much into it at all, until they told us we were getting a sound wall, because it's very noisy," says Ray Patton.
That sound wall along 7800 South will also turn their street into a dead end. They like the trade-offs, but it's a very different neighborhood than when Vonda first moved in 40 years ago.
"It was quiet, fields all around," she says. "I was out in the middle of nowhere, and I loved it."
Right now, she's in the middle of a lot of traffic that isn't diminishing.
UDOT still wants to hear from residents, businesses, and commuters in this design-build process. They're holding an open house tomorrow, Wednesday May 25th from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Columbia Elementary (3505 West 7800 South) in West Jordan.
Email: jboal@ksl.com
