Road projects planned for Southern Utah

More safety improvements on U.S. 6, work on a 28-mile stretch of I-15 between Beaver and Paragonah, and the reconstruction of St. George Boulevard highlight road construction projects planned this summer for southern Utah.

"It's a very busy construction season," said Dal Hawks, director of the Utah Department of Transportation's Region 4, which covers the southern portion of the state.

"There's a lot of activity going on, but I think it's happening in ways and in places that it's not going to be a major impact to the public."

It would have been even busier, but UDOT decided in early March not to pursue reconstruction of Main Street in Moab this summer. When all of the bids for the contract came in higher than expected, the agency decided to review the project and re-bid the work later this year.

Here is a look at the four major road projects:

• U.S. 6, north of I-70 — UDOT will add passing lanes on two segments of the highway, which long has had the reputation of being Utah's deadliest.

One stretch is from milepost 226 to milepost 228. The other is just east of Wellington in an area known as Sunnyside Junction.

"We've had a problem with trucks merging on to U.S. 6 and then getting into the climbing lane" at Sunnyside Junction, Hawks said. "We have had some serious accidents and fatalities in that zone, so we'll be widening a bridge . . . so trucks from a local coal mine can safely merge into traffic and create a better situation there.

"The combination of a passing lane and intersection improvements, we hope, will have some benefits."

Minimal traffic delays are anticipated. UDOT plans to keep one lane open in each direction a majority of the time, while restricting the road to a single lane with a flagger may be necessary at other times.

• I-15 between Beaver and Paragonah— Crews will replace the road surface on a 28-mile segment of I-15 north of Parowan.

Some work was done on the 16-mile southern portion of that area last summer, and crews will first need to finish up that work, south of U-20. Then work will begin on the northernmost 12 miles approaching Beaver.

"Once you get south of Beaver, you hit some old concrete pavement, and that pretty much rattles you pretty hard all the way down to the Parowan area," Hawks said.

Crews will grind up the old concrete surface and overlay it with a thick mat of asphalt to smooth out the pavement.