WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — The Utah Department of Transportation is making moves to take the final section of Bangerter Highway and turn it into a freeway.
Since 2012, the department has removed stoplights at 10 intersections and plans to do the same for more, but it could take many years until that vision becomes reality.
Bangerter Highway is already known for its traffic and congestion. Imagine sitting at the stoplight four times longer than you already do.
“If we don’t do anything, by 2050 we’re going to see double the vehicles we currently see in this section of Bangerter Highway,” said UDOT project manager Alex Fisher-Willis in a public hearing.
Construction crews would remove stoplights along the stretch of 4100 South in West Valley City to California Avenue in Salt Lake City.
Fisher-Willis said it’s still unknown which location will transform first since the state only has a third of the funding right now. That section of the project won’t start construction until 2027.
Work is slated to start at 4700 South, 9800 South, 13400 South and 2700 West within the next year.
“If we do it one interchange at a time like we have on the other Bangerter projects, it’ll be pretty similar to those. A lot of those have been taking a year and a half to two years to finishing construction,” she said.
During Monday night’s public hearing over Zoom, a majority of participants shared concerns about how the change will impact the value of their property. They asked under what circumstances the city would buy property from them.
“It’s hard right now with the lines not being quite so precise for us to determine that aspect of it, but we will look at that with homeowners as we negotiate,” said Eric Lyon, UDOT Right-of-Way Lead.
According to UDOT’s projections, when the freeway conversion project is complete, the time to drive on Bangerter from I-15 in Draper to the Salt Lake City International Airport will be reduced by up to 20 minutes.
“It’s just a matter of timing when the funding will be available,” said Fisher-Willis. “Because we already partially funded it, it will go through.”
There will be two more in-person UDOT open houses this Wednesday and Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Granger High School cafeteria.
