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Team CoverageGood news for drivers: The last of seven brand new westbound bridges was put in place over 600 East this morning.
With the westbound bridges all in place, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) will move on to the next stage of the project. This comes as the department celebrates the grand opening of a widened State Street in Sandy.
What UDOT dubbed as "the bridge farm" on 1300 East is now empty. Seven bridges are all in their permanent positions.
So far, the new technology, called a Self-Propelled Modular Transporter, has been successful in quickly lifting, moving and lowering seven bridges into the westbound lanes between State Street and 1300 East.
Despite a few setbacks, project managers say they're back on schedule. "Overall, we're ecstatic that it's complete. It worked out well. We actually made up the time that we lost in the beginning with the beam issue," said Wayne Bowden, with Ralph Wadsworth Construction.
Now UDOT will begin paving the widened westbound part of the freeway.
"The new lanes that we're building right now are the currently the westbound lanes. Now we'll have five lanes in each direction. Eventually, we'll squeeze them so that we make six," said UDOT spokesman Adan Carrillo.
Those lanes will be completed this fall, and I-80 project manager John Montoya says when traffic is shifted to the new lanes in December, construction will become more conventional.
"We just felt some real urgency this first season to get to a point where we're on new bridges," Montoya said.
Seven eastbound bridges on I-80 will be built conventionally in their permanent locations instead of rolling them into place. That should be done in the fall of 2009.
Overall, drivers are excited for the project to be finished. "It did need to get done. It was pretty bad before, and it'll be nice to have a new freeway in there," driver Nick Merica said.
Five more pre-fabricated bridges still await placement on I-215 and farther east on I-80.
Meanwhile, there are no more orange cones in between 9000 South and 10600 South on State Street in Sandy. Residents, commuters and businesses are relieved the construction is done.
With this morning's ribbon-cutting ceremony, a wider State Street officially reopened.
"This chunk of State Street between 9000 South and 10600 [South] is probably one of the busiest portions of State Street in the county, and it's a very important for Sandy residents and business owners," Carrillo said.
UDOT says you may still see a few slower speed-limit signs along this portion of State Street. That's just because crews are retouching sidewalks and doing some more landscaping.
E-mail: wjohnson@ksl.com
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