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Jed Boal ReportingCommuters who head north out of Salt Lake at the end of the day will get more traffic relief this fall. Keeping up with growth to the north continues to challenge the Utah Department of Transportation. Legacy Highway and commuter rail are on the way, but short-term, one more lane should ease the bottleneck.
Head north out of Salt Lake during the afternoon rush and you run into one of the biggest traffic headaches on the Wasatch Front. Two years ago, UDOT added a third lane in each direction and rebuilt the Beck Street ramp, a quick fix to a long-term problem. The result is a more tolerable traffic jam. Where there's congestion, there are crashes and fender benders.
Bethany Eller, Utah Department of Transportation: "It's really affecting motorists. We've decided we can go in there and help improve some of the safety and also decrease congestion at those times."
UDOT will build one more northbound lane from Highway 89 to I-215, a stretch about a two miles long. It's a project moved up on a list of priorities..
Bethany Eller, Utah Department of Transportation: "It's going to help with some of the capacity of the road; but the main purpose of this project is to help with the merging traffic."
About ten thousand cars merge from US 89 onto I-15 each day. Crews already restriped the lanes for construction, next they'll add more pavement on the inside shoulder to make room for the additional lane. Crews should complete the project in November
Bethany Eller, Utah Department of Transportation: "We wanted to speed it up and get it done this season because we think it's going to quickly help the congestion in that area."
As for Legacy Parkway, UDOT should settle on the contractors in mid-November, construction should start shortly thereafter. Expect Commuter rail and Legacy in 2008.
