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LEHI — A major lane closure in the Interstate 15 technology corridor construction project starts Wednesday night, and will last through Monday morning. Project officials said the end of construction is in sight for the gridlock and delays.
According to officials from the Utah Department of Transportation, the project should wrap up in about a month.
UDOT will shut down the far-left northbound lane on I-15 in Lehi, beginning at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
The lane will be closed between Lehi Main Street and state Route 92 until 6 a.m. Monday. Officials said it’s a critical closure on the last lap of construction.
“It’s going to be a big benefit for anybody that works here or comes here,” said Andrew Gwynn, a UDOT project manager who has been working on the interstate expansion since it started.
Nearly 200,000 cars drive that stretch of I-15 every day.
Over the last two decades, UDOT rebuilt I-15 in Salt Lake and Utah counties, except for that five-mile stretch through Lehi.
“You’d have a bottleneck that would be a big problem, really, every evening commute,” said John Gleason, UDOT spokesperson.
Lehi continues to be one of the fastest-growing communities in Utah.
Prior to the beginning of construction, the traffic on the interstate, and on the surface roads in Lehi, was typically among the worst in the state.
Driver Alert: Starting tonight, the left lane of NB I-15 will be closed until the morning of 9/28 from to facilitate concrete paving from Lehi Main St - Timp Hwy (S.R. 92). Crews will be pouring concrete at night in various locations & allowing it to cure during the day.
— I-15 Technology Corridor (@i15techcorridor) September 23, 2020
“This project is an effort to keep up and to anticipate some of the future growth that we have happening here,” said Gleason.
The rare daytime lane closure will allow crews to pave and give the concrete time to cure.
“Typically, we would only see night closures,” said Gwynn. “We’ve seen a decrease in volumes of traffic northbound that still enables us to do this without too much delay.”
Drivers should still expect minor delays.
Work on the I-15 Technology Corridor project started in January 2018. Crews are now finishing up the $415 million project.
“It’s pretty exciting,” said Gleason. “We’ve been out here for three construction seasons, and across the state this has been probably the most anticipated project.”
Crews have been widening I-15 to six lanes in both directions, and replacing old asphalt with new concrete pavement. They also rebuilt the interchanges at state Route 92 and 2100 North, and added a new one-way frontage road system to help local traffic. They expect to finish the job in the next month.
“The biggest thing is just starting to move traffic lanes into their final locations and get that final striping down,” said Gwynn.
UDOT still has finishing work to do on barriers and bridges, but the orange barrels should be gone by Thanksgiving.
