UDOT working to improve line visibility along Wasatch Front

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

UDOT is enhancing road line visibility along the Wasatch Front.
Over 1,000 miles have been restriped with contrast striping for better visibility in adverse weather.
An additional $6 million annually aids these efforts, with more areas scheduled for improvements next spring.

SALT LAKE CITY — Snow and rain in Utah's forecast is reviving drivers' concerns about being able to see the lines on the road. Utah Department of Transportation crews have been working to improve line visibility along the Wasatch Front over the last year and a half, but how much do they have left?

KSL-TV spoke with UDOT to find out where drivers can see those improvements next.

State road crews say they've been working on improving the lines since last summer. They've restriped over 1,000 miles of road this year alone, and that work will continue. Drivers KSL talked to said it's needed.

"When it's raining or snowing, it's hard to tell when to merge and how far I am into the lines," said Sophia Baily, a Holladay resident.

"You can't make out where they are, where there's transitions," Andrew Muse from Park City, said.

"It's pretty hard. You have to be paying attention," said Creed O'Shea of Holladay.

To improve line visibility, UDOT has been repainting parts of Interstate 15, Interstate 215, Interstate 80 and State Route 201 with contrast striping, a white line followed by a black line, to make them easier to see on rainy and snowy days.

"Everyone wants to feel safe on the roads, and we want to make sure that they can see where they're going," John Gleason, UDOT public relations director, said.

He said drivers will most notice the work done on I-15 in Utah County. This week, crews are repainting lanes to some bridges on I-80 West. They will pause for the winter, then focus on I-15 in Davis County and complete more parts of Salt Lake County in the spring.

"The Legislature has given us an additional $6 million every year on top of what we usually do for maintenance to make sure that that striping is where it needs to be," Gleason said.

That's welcome news to drivers.

"I definitely notice it, when I can see the lines better," Baily said.

"I think it helps, yeah for sure," O'Shea said.

"Anything to improve vehicle safety, you know, driver safety," Muse said.

UDOT provided a list of areas where crews plan to continue repainting the lines next spring:

I-80 in Salt Lake County
The east end of state Route 201, working around the 3200 West project
Mountain View Corridor
Bangerter Highway
I-15 in Davis County
Highway 40 in Park City and Heber
I-80 in Tooele
I-80 from Park City to Coalville
State Route 92 from Lehi to Highland
Highway 189 in Provo Canyon

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.