$2.6 billion rebuild set for I-15 in Utah County

The Utah Department of Transportation is gearing up for a massive, $2.6 billion reconstruction project involving 20 miles of I-15 in Utah County and two east-west roads that drivers will be able to use to avoid the freeway construction.

UDOT has hired Kiewit Corp. and W.W. Clyde & Co. to design and build a new six-mile road in Lehi called Pioneer Crossing and to rebuild the American Fork Main Street interchange of I-15 using a two-bridge, diamond-shaped engineering concept developed in Europe that UDOT officials hope will be more efficient for drivers.

The project will cost $250 million, with about half of that coming from the $2.6 billion I-15 reconstruction budget. Pioneer Crossing will run along 1000 South in Lehi from the American Fork Main Street interchange to Redwood Road, UDOT spokesman Scott Thompson said.

The second east-west corridor to be built prior to I-15 reconstruction is a new road called the Vineyard Corridor, about nine miles winding between 800 North in Orem, Vineyard, Lindon and the American Fork Main Street interchange. The Vineyard Corridor will cost $200 million and is separate from the $2.6 billion I-15 reconstruction budget, said Joe Walker, communication outreach manager for the project.

Construction of the two east-west roads will begin in earnest next spring, although excavation work will soon be underway for Pioneer Crossing. UDOT plans to award a contractor for the Vineyard Corridor by March 20.

Both roads and the new American Fork interchange will be finished in the fall of 2010, although vehicles will be able to drive along the Pioneer Crossing and on the interchange by November 2009 as construction crews work around the traffic.

Pioneer Crossing, which Thompson said will have a speed limit of 45 or 50 mph, will come as welcome relief for residents of Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain. The only roads now leading out of the cities are Redwood Road and Main Street in Lehi. City officials for years have wondered what would happen if a natural disaster were to hit the area and everyone tried to evacuate at once.

The average daily traffic at the intersection of Redwood and Main is 20,980 vehicles, according to UDOT data.

UDOT is negotiating with property owners who live in the Vineyard Corridor area, but no properties will be condemned along Pioneer Crossing. "What Lehi city had the foresight to do was to leave a corridor of green space through the subdivisions and the development that has happened in the area," Thompson said.