Road projects focus on N. Utah, Cache

"Now, during the week when construction activities are going full swing, those delays could be upwards of an hour. And the reason for that is we will have limited one-way traffic throughout a good portion of the project."

Some full road closures will be necessary during off-peak hours.

The biggest benefit of the project, Pope said, will be the safety improvements throughout the canyon.

"We're adding passing lanes on uphill portions so, in sections, there will be a three-lane section of highway," he said. "We are flattening a lot of the curves so you'll get much better sight distance. That has been a lot of the problem — people get going too fast and hit some of these hard curves, and we've had a fairly high accident history up in that canyon over the years."

• U.S. 89, Logan Canyon — Several old bridges will be replaced and some minor road-widening will take place with traffic sometimes restricted to just one lane with delays of 15 to 20 minutes. However, UDOT hopes to limit construction — and traffic restrictions — to one bridge at a time.

The new bridges will be wider, and therefore safer, and the current potholes will be gone, Pope noted.

The new pedestrian underpass will connect to an existing trail system on either side of the highway, providing a safe crossing.

• U.S. 89, north of Ogden — UDOT will reconstruct a three-mile corridor from Wall Avenue into Pleasant View at 2700 North. Some minor widening will be included, but no new travel lanes will be added.

"It basically brings everything up to standard," Pope said. "We have less-than-12-foot travel lanes, they are now 11 feet, so we will (add) 12-foot lanes.

"This is not a capacity improvement. It's more of a factor of an old road that has outlived its surface life, and we are replacing it."

Wider lanes and shoulders should improve safety, Pope said. A sidewalk and new drainage system also will be added.

The highway, now five lanes, will be restricted to one lane in each direction at certain times during the project. Pope said his staff is considering options that would allow two lanes in each direction to remain open a majority of the time, but no final decisions have been made.

• I-84, east of I-15 — Traffic will be restricted to one lane in each direction throughout the summer for a pavement-preservation project on a 6 1/2-mile stretch from I-15 to the mouth of Weber Canyon. The work is one of three projects scheduled for I-84 this summer.

The project is designed to give the freeway surface an additional 15 years of life.