Comments about ‘Bangerter could get new 'centerchange'’

so what the heck are they doing at that intersection now? The road has been torn up for months and now we're looking at more construction next year? What is wrong with UDOT?

What's wrong with them is that they didn't plan on Bangerter being anything more than a stop-lighted surface street. Rather than thinking ahead they built what was cheap at the time and what will now come back to bite us!

Good for DOT. Bangerter is not really a "Highway". It was poorly conceived when it was approved by the powers that were at the time. Reducing the number of traffic signals will improve traffic flow, and, more importantly, save lives.

It may be more expensive but a full limited access road is needed for the highway and always was. I always thought it odd that they did not do that even 5 years ago when finishing the road from 7800 so to I 15 in Riverton. By then they knew the current design was not practical. The centerchange is a novel idea and uses less land, but will encourage the slow bad driving left laners we all already have issue with.

I agree. Once the Bangerter was built,the inevitable development made it obsolete. The north/south traffic has been favored but the volume is such that anything to keep the cars moving is a plus. Otherwise, it becomes a wall at rush hour, backing up east/west traffic forever.

I completely agree that something needs to be done; I drive through this intersection daily on my east/west commute. It does make me wonder what the current construction is for. In looking at the drawing, I think this could be a great solution; can we explore that for more east/west arteries such as 7200 south, 9000 south, etc. And, last I checked, there's no I-15 access from 7800 south.

Johnny Triumph is right. When Bangerter was originally being planned, UDOT considered treating itlike a freeway and putting in overpasses at each intersection, but decided against it. It was simply cheaper and faster to build it as a stop-lighted highway and it has come back to bite us. Look at the cross traffic on nearly any intersection at Bangerter from 21st south down to Daybreak. During rush hour, you can sit there for 15 minutes trying to get through. UDOT failed to think forward.

A new example of failed thinking from UDOT: suicide lanes on 5400 South from Redwood Road to Bangerter. The idea is to shift the center lane (currently a dedicated turn lane) to east bound traffic in the mornings and west bound in the afternoons. UDOT is trying to improve the traffic flow during rush hour- what they failed to take into consideration is that traffic gets bottlenecked at Redwood Road and Bangerter. They will simply end up moving traffic to the choke points even faster, resolving nothing. Why are they doing this? They got some money from the federal government and had to use it or lose it.

I find it interesting that this is only being considered at ONE intersection. Farther north, only grade-level improvements similar to the upgraded 3500 south interchange are planned.

Oh, well. We can always rip out the improved intersections later once UDOT realizes that the whole highway should be converted to a true freeway.

I want to know where the wetlands are at at Jordan Landing that would be affected by this?

Why not do it right once and for all, and make all of the intersections on Bangerter Hwy a real freeway interchange? This "centerchange" patch job will mean in 10 years, they will need to do it over again.

Perhaps job security verses actually improving traffic flow is the major motivation behind this "centerchange" project.