- Construction began on Legacy Parkway to add lanes from Farmington to I-215.
- UDOT aims to ease congestion and accommodate future traffic growth by 2050.
- The $65 million project will last until 2026 without needing additional land.
FARMINGTON — Work on a project that the Utah Department of Transportation says will ease congestion on a busy arterial road connecting Davis and Salt Lake counties is underway.
Construction began Monday to add a new lane of traffic to Legacy Parkway in both directions from Farmington to I-215 in Salt Lake City.
UDOT said the expansion is needed to match population and traffic growth that is anticipated to happen in the coming decades.
"We did a pretty significant environmental study ahead of construction, and our modeling kind of found that if we didn't do anything to Legacy (Parkway) and just left it as a two lanes, by 2050, it would basically be gridlock on the whole corridor no matter what section you're in, all the time," said Mitch Shaw, a spokesman for UDOT.
The project, with an estimated cost of $65 million, calls for the addition of a third lane in each direction of travel in between the existing northbound and southbound lanes.
UDOT says the additional lane should cut down on congestion that drivers currently experience on Legacy Parkway, especially during peak travel times.
Crews have been in the early stages of preparation work Monday and Tuesday, so commuters may not experience many traffic headaches — yet.
"​​We currently have both lanes open in each direction, so there's not going to be too many traffic impacts right now, but people will see some orange cones out there, and people should know that there will likely be impacts in the future," Shaw said.
When UDOT built Legacy Parkway nearly 20 years ago, it was designed with the intention of expanding the road sometime in the future, according to Shaw. That being the case, the project doesn't require any additional right of way land.
"We're expanding the roadway, but we don't need to take any additional land," he said.
Construction is expected to last through the end of 2026.
Shaw said once the Legacy Parkway project is completed, the expanded highway will play a role in a much larger construction effort to upgrade I-15 between Davis and Salt Lake counties. The nearly $3 billion project is expected to start sometime in 2027.
As for Legacy Parkway, drivers who use the corridor can stay informed about the project and upcoming impacts to their commute at udotinput.utah.gov/legacyparkwayimproved.
