UDOT to close I-15 for Provo Center Street exit for overnight work

PROVO — Utah Department of Transportation crews will close the freeway to remove part of the Center Street bridge July 10.

The freeway will close at 11 p.m. and is expected to open the following morning at 11:30 a.m., said Heather Barnum, a spokeswoman for the $1.7 billion I-15 CORE reconstruction project in Utah County.

During the closure, northbound traffic will exit at University Avenue in Provo and detour via 300 South to 500 West to Center Street and back onto I-15. Southbound traffic will divert through the on- and off-ramps at the Center Street interchange.

Center Street will be closed between 900 West and 1600 West to accommodate the freeway traffic coming through.

Drivers should use 820 North or 600 South as east-west connectors. There will not be access onto the freeway at Center Street, and local drivers should use University Avenue or University Parkway, Barnum said.

Drivers wanting to head east on Center Street from southbound I-15 traffic use what transportation engineers call a "flyover" — a bridge that goes over the freeway.

"But if you happen to miss the flyover, the westbound (ramp) does happen to go east as well," UDOT spokesman Scott Thompson said. "We're taking the existing ramp, and we're going to modify it a little by adding a second left turn lane. We're also going to make it signalized."

The flyover is coming down, and drivers for the next two years will use the temporary westbound ramp until a new interchange is constructed.

Another part of the Center Street bridge is coming down July 14. No freeway closure is necessary, but ramp access to I-15 and Center Street from 900 West to 1600 West will be closed. Motorists will need to use University Avenue or University Parkway and the same detours UDOT has planned for July 10.

As part of I-15 CORE, UDOT is adding two additional travel lanes on each side of the freeway. That means the existing bridges will be too small for the new freeway.

"We took down 2700 North in Spanish Fork," Barnum said. "Now we're taking this one down, and there will be a handful of others."

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