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The Utah Department of Transportation will close a portion of State Street in Pleasant Grove on Monday. The road will be closed for about a year as it undergoes a major face-lift.
Driving down State Street in Pleasant Grove is usually no problem; two lanes in each direction allow for plenty of cars to travel smoothly, and there's plenty of space on either side of the road. But once you pass Main Street heading north, the four-lane road decreases to two lanes, affecting the flow of traffic.
"It's been a bottle neck and an issue there for some time," said UDOT spokesman Scott Thompson.
The road is also very narrow and can be dangerous for police officers making stops. Those are two of the reasons UDOT is closing this section of road for a year.
"It'll be U.S. Highway 89, or State Street, as people know it in Pleasant Grove, between Main Street, or Geneva Road, and 200 South," Thompson explained.
UDOT recommends taking Main Street and 200 South as detours during construction. "We're going to put up some temporary traffic signals to help with traffic on 200 South because it's only a two-lane road as well," Thompson said.
In the year State Street will be closed, crews will widen the road; put in new sidewalks, shoulders and gutters; improve the intersection with Main Street; and they'll build a bridge over existing railroad tracks.
Like any road project, UDOT knows it will be an inconvenience for drivers. "There will be growing pains, but we hope not to bad," Thompson said.
UDOT has recently shelved several improvement projects because of the recession and budget cuts, but this State Street Bridge Project is not in jeopardy because it was contracted out before those cuts.
E-mail: rjeppesen@ksl.com
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