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LEHI — A Utah County man who owns a trucking company said lanes on I-15 in Lehi are dangerous – and he has video of an incident to illustrate his point.
There have been a lot of changes to the Tech Corridor in the area, but the highway expansion has been creating some confusion.
Ivan Souza, owner of Silver Hawk Freight in Lindon, said the lanes are not properly marked on the stretch of road near the Timpanogos Highway Exit. He's not only warning drivers to be careful, but he's also asking the Utah Department of Transportation to fix the issue.
"The previous markings are not being covered properly, which can cause confusion to a driver," he said.
Souza produced dash cam video from a semitruck driving southbound on I-15 just past point of the mountain. It shows the truck driving down lanes that have been re-marked, though the lines from where the lanes used to be are still clearly visible.
The truck driver continues following one set of lines while a car in the lane to the right follows the other set. The two vehicles nearly collided. Luckily, the car was able to swerve away in time.
"It's not the first time," Souza said. "I had drivers mention that the lanes there shift, and this time we were able to catch it on video."
He said safety is his priority.
When he was alerted to the hard braking on one of his big rig's computer systems, he immediately investigated.
"We have access to the camera on the dash of the truck to go review why the hard braking happened," Souza said. "What I noticed first was the driver was following the dotted line, and he did not notice that it was shifting to the left. And my first reaction was, 'I have seen that before, happening in Utah County.'"
He said he wants UDOT to make this fix a priority.
What we do for temporary striping, we actually have tape that is adhesive. When you pull up the tape, it can sometimes leave behind residue.
–John Gleason, UDOT
UDOT spokesperson John Gleason said the department is working on the issue.
"Throughout construction, we see changing configurations, lane configurations, and it's just the nature of construction," he said. "What we do for temporary striping, we actually have tape that is adhesive. When you pull up the tape, it can sometimes leave behind residue, so we're going to look to go in there and see if we can clean up that residue."
In the meantime, Souza said he wants drivers to be aware.
"Everybody be careful there on that stretch of road because we don't want anybody to have an accident," he said.
UDOT officials said crews will be wrapping up the project in the next month or two, and the lanes will be finalized once and for all.
