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Alex Cabrero ReportingWe've all heard how fast Utah is growing, just look at all the housing construction going on. To keep up with the growth, the Postal Service is adding two new zip codes to some booming areas.
If you haven't been here to Herriman in the past year or two, you'd hardly recognize the place now. It seems like the most popular vehicle there is a backhoe.
Allen Sotherland, Hansen Heating and Air Conditioning: "Yeah, it's just unbelievable how fast this community is growing out here."
Allen Sotherland is just one of hundreds, maybe thousands, of construction workers changing Herriman from a sleepy town into a big time Salt Lake Valley city.
Allen Sotherland: "It seems like we're doing three, four, five houses out here a week, easily."
Ten or fifteen years ago, you could probably get land out there for pretty cheap, but now, just a few hundred yards away, lots and homes go for about a half million dollars.
No one knows the growth better than mail carriers at the Riverton Post Office.
Jeana Guerricabeitia: "It has grown a ton."
Jeana Guerricabeitia has been running the Herriman route for six years and is delivering more letters now than letters in her last name.
Jeana Guerricabeitia, Mail Carrier: "We used to have just a little trace of mail, but now we have like triple or quadruple the mail volume that we used to."
Herriman used to share Riverton's zip code, but now it's getting its own, 84096, along with fast growing Eagle Mountain, splitting from Lehi with its own 84005.
Bob Hennefer, Riverton Postmaster: "It makes it easier for our mail processing equipment to process the mail in our Salt Lake City distribution center."
And soon, new mail carriers will make it easier for current carriers to get their job done.
Jeana Guerricabeitia: "It's hard some days, but we get through it."
Jeana says it used to take her five to six hours to finish her mail route; now it's eight to 10 hours. As for the new zip codes, they begin on July 1st.
