New Pleasant Grove State Street bridge opens to traffic

By Sam Penrod | Posted - Nov. 9, 2009 at 4:10 p.m.

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

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PLEASANT GROVE -- A major road construction project on State Street in Pleasant Grove is finally finished. The Utah Department of Transportation opened a new bridge Monday, which replaces a two-lane road that had caused traffic to bottleneck.

The construction project has been underway for nearly a year and has caused some significant impact to drivers. But that all changed Monday afternoon, when the new State Street bridge opened to traffic.

The old bridge had been there for decades and actually took traffic underneath the railroad tracks Pleasant Grove, and the lanes narrowed down to just one in each direction. Now the area has a five-lane bridge over the railroad, and UDOT says it will effectively move traffic through the area be a critical part of the planned reconstruction of Interstate 15 in Utah County.

**Project improvements**![](http://media.bonnint.net/slc/1559/155995/15599507.jpg)

• Widen State Street • Bridge *over* railroad tracks • New sidewalks, shoulders, curbs and gutters • Improve State Street and Main Street intersection - *[UDOT](http://www.udot.utah.gov/statestreetpg/index.html)*

"State Street will be a major alternative once the I-15 project is underway. And we know it will have a lot of traffic on there, and so we wanted to get that bridge in place before all that other construction happens as well," says UDOT spokesman Scott Thompson. The new bridge is striped for five lanes of traffic but has the potential for UDOT to add another two lanes in the future. The bridge also has a sidewalk for pedestrians to use, and lighting to help make it safer.

UDOT is also finishing up on another big bridge project in Utah County. The 400 South freeway interchange in Springville is almost finished, as well as a new bridge over the railroad tracks at 1500 West leading to Springville. UDOT expects that project to be completed in two weeks.

E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com

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