Road crews won't labor over holiday weekend

Motorists are about to get their wish. Road construction crews will abandon I-15.

It's only for the Labor Day weekend, though, so enjoy it while you can.Most Wasatch Constructors personnel will hang up their hard hats at 4 p.m. Friday so holiday travelers won't have to dodge as many orange barrels and the heavy equipment on the way out of town. Crews working on I-15 south of the I-215 junction will be the first to take off. They'll stop working about 2 p.m. Friday.

Workers won't return until daylight Tuesday, so folks extending the three-day weekend into the late hours of Monday or early hours of Tuesday won't be surprised by additional closures.

All long-term restrictions, including the recent closure of westbound I-80 between State Street and I-15, will remain in place, however. And after the traffic switch between 1500 South and 2700 South, scheduled for Friday morning, I-15 will be reduced to two lanes in each direction on one side of the freeway from 800 North to the I-215 junction.

"The traffic switch is being done Thursday night for Friday, so all the traffic controls that should affect both commuters and people going out of town would be gone by 6 a.m." Friday, said John Leonard, the Utah Department of Transportation's I-15 operations manager. "There's no major work that would inconvenience motorists."

Those planning to skip work Tuesday as well shouldn't encounter unexpected closures on their return, either. Any lane restrictions would begin no earlier than 10 p.m. Tuesday, and perhaps as late as midnight, as crews return to their nighttime schedule for work affecting parts of I-15 and adjacent roads still in use.

Travelers should keep in mind that the northbound collector and part of the southbound collector will be closed by the time the holiday weekend begins.

The northbound collector, used to distribute traffic to and from I-15 between the I-80 East interchange and the 900 South ramps, was scheduled to close at 6 a.m. Thursday. The southbound collector, between 1300 South and 2100 South, is to close at 6 a.m. Friday.

Temporary freeway ramps are in place at 2100 South, 1300 South and 900 South, although motorists will not be able to access southbound I-15 from 2100 South, or northbound I-15 from 1300 South.