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KAYSVILLE — The West Davis Highway is far from complete but construction crews started laying the first asphalt for the future 16-mile highway on Wednesday, marking a noticeable step forward on the massive project.
"We've had the grade, which is a dirt pathway, for a while, but any time you can kind of see the paving put down on the road — something that more closely resembles actual driving conditions in this area that we've been working in — it's kind of a milestone," said Mitch Shaw, a regional spokesman for the Utah Department of Transportation.
Exciting news! Our crews are paving the first sections of the West Davis Highway. 🙌 Check out this video from today of the work happening near the future 200 North interchange in Kaysville. pic.twitter.com/EjDLEIoPTe
— Utah DOT (@UtahDOT) June 8, 2022
UDOT broke ground on the $750 million project in May 2021 after over a decade of planning. Since then, crews have continued to build the highway's pathway from Farmington to West Point, along the west side of Davis County between the shore of the Great Salt Lake and Interstate 15.
They pinpointed the section near Kaysville for pavement now because crews were already working on a new I-15 interchange near 200 North that's part of the West Davis Highway project.
"That's the most immediate thing we're doing, but we've got a lot of crews working along the path of the highway," Shaw said.
The plan also calls for interchanges at Legacy Highway and 950 North in Farmington, 2700 West in Layton, as well as 2000 West and Antelope Drive in Syracuse. The entire project is scheduled to be completed sometime by the end of 2024, but there is no projected time frame for exactly when in 2024 it will open.
This is the same timeline crews had when ground was broken on the project over a year ago, despite construction issues that have plagued projects across Utah, the U.S. and the world. Inflation, along with supply chain and labor shortages all pose potential delays.
The rising cost of various materials has "definitely been an issue," Shaw said. It's unclear when those issues will clear up, so it's possible they may result in delays between now and the time the new highway opens.
"Supply chain issues and rising costs of materials has impacted us but it's not yet at the point that we'll have to delay any work," he said. "We're still shooting for the construction to be completed in 2024."
