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SALT LAKE CITY — Next month, Salt Lake City plans to shut down the 1300 South Bridge, a major east-west corridor, in order to rebuild an aging viaduct.
The street will be closed six months from 500 West to 700 West.
The $6.8 million project is being paid for with federal money and a city match. Government officials expect to get 40 years out of the new bridge.
Emergency repairs have extended the road, however many believe it needs an upgrade.
"You can see there have been some repairs in here,” Salt Lake project manager Paul Dowler said, pointing out problem spots in the viaduct built during the 1970s.
"When you get rusted rebar like that, it just kind of pops the concrete out when it does freeze/thaw type of action,” Dowler said.
The main supports are in good shape and they will get seismic upgrades. But crews have made many emergency repairs on the joints because of movement.
"Those could continue to deteriorate. So that's one of the things we want to fix with this rebuild," Dowler said.
They will keep the main supports, replace half of the girders and rebuild the bridge deck.
Considering that I'm going to be riding more soon, that is actually a very good thing, very needed. … Very wanted.
–Casey Reynolds, pedestrian
"There are a lot of people crossing and using this corridor,” Dowler said.
Cyclists and hundreds of pedestrians cross the bridge daily, such as Casey Reynolds, who walks this way to work every day.
"That's OK with me if it's going to fix things in the long run,” Reynolds said.
Detouring around the construction will take him an extra 10 or 15 minutes.
But when it's done, the new bridge will be wider with lanes for bikes and pedestrians on both sides.
"Considering that I'm going to be riding more soon, that is actually a very good thing, very needed. … Very wanted," Reynolds said.
But the bridge will provide a safer route for all modes of transportation.
"We will be in and done and not have to do this again for a long time,” Heather Barnum, UDOT project manager, added. "We always want to come and leave with something better than what we started with. That's why we make these investments."
