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SALT LAKE CITY — Utahns may face a 10-day period of heavy traffic due to the Fourth of July holiday falling in the middle of the week this year.
AAA and the Utah Department of Transportation expect the traffic to spread out across the week, starting as early as the Thursday before the week of the holiday.
"(July Fourth) being on a Wednesday this year is going to produce some of the busiest — one of the busiest travel seasons that we've had across this country, actually," said Michael Blasky, a AAA regional spokesman. "What it really boils down to is you're going to have less cars on the road at any given one time, but it's going to be more spread out throughout that week."
According to UDOT spokesman John Gleason, the department expects commuters to be split on which weekend to celebrate the holiday. The department expects heavy traffic throughout a 10-day period, starting June 28 and lasting until July 8.
Gleason said UDOT expects traffic to spike June 28 and 29 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. both days. Another spike is expected at those times on July 3 with commuters getting a jump on their July Fourth celebrations.
"But there may be quite a few people that are taking advantage of the latter part of the holiday week as well — maybe taking off Wednesday, Thursday, Friday," Gleason said. Those days are also expected to see traffic spikes from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
However, July 8, the Sunday after Independence Day, is expected to be the highest traffic levels for UDOT, Gleason said.
"If there is any time of concern it would be everyone coming back on Sunday afternoon," Gleason said. Gleason said that from 1 to 7 p.m. they generally see travelers return from vacation. He said an area of concern for traffic that Sunday will be U.S. 6 in Spanish Fork Canyon near Thistle, which will be down from five lanes to two.
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During Utah's "100 Deadliest Days," UDOT is trying to remind drivers to avoid the five deadliest driver behaviors.To reduce any congestion on July 4, the department will put a temporary halt on bigger construction projects — something it's done in previous years.
A UDOT construction project to add a lane to I-15 from 2100 South to 12300 South will stop work on the early morning of July 3.
"We won't have any lane restrictions on I-15 in the Salt Lake County area from 5 a.m. Tuesday until 9 p.m. Thursday," Gleason said. Another project to widen I-15 along the state's "Technology Corridor," which started this spring, will stop work July 3 at noon until July 5 at 10 p.m, according to Gleason.
"We don't want to cause any more delays than we may already see due to the fact that so many people are hitting the road," Gleason said.
Nationally, AAA estimates a record-breaking 46.9 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more for Independence Day. That's a 5 percent increase over last year and the highest number AAA has seen since it started tracking July Fourth travel 18 years ago.
Gleason suggests avoiding those peak travel times, either by leaving work earlier, staying later or working from home.
"Just making sure people are aware of the situation, making sure that they have the understanding of what we're expecting here," Gleason said. "And there is likely to be quite a lot of people out on the roads for the next several days."
