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SALT LAKE CITY -- The Utah Department of Transportation is taking a new approach to the most expensive highway project in state history. When it's time to rebuild Interstate 15 in Utah County, value will be stressed like never before.
UDOT has totally changed the rules for contractors on the project. Instead of asking for the best price, UDOT has assigned a price of $1.72 billion. It wants the contractor to deliver the best freeway possible for that price.
Transportation officials say how much freeway they can get for the money will determine whether the expansion goes from American Fork to Provo, or all the way south to Spanish Fork.
UDOT planned to expand I-15 for 43 miles, from Sandy to Payson.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports there is precedent. A reconstruction project in St. Louis was expected to cost $700 million. That city fixed the price at $500 million and got 98 percent of what it wanted.
