The Utah Department of Transportation said it’s focusing on bridge repairs in Summit County, and the flyover from Highway 40 northbound to Interstate 80 westbound is next on the list.
The ramp is scheduled to close Monday, June 5. UDOT said the work will last up to a month and finish in time for July 4.
In the meantime, drivers from Heber City heading toward Salt Lake City will detour into Silver Creek Junction, and have to go through a traffic light to re-enter the interstate. It’s the same detour UDOT set up when it closed the flyover for pothole repairs for two days in March.
Construction crews plan to work 24 hours, seven days a week until the work is done. An announcement warned drivers to plan for travel delays, as well as noise, dust and lighting.
Snowflake Transportation owner Stephen Copeland regularly uses that route. He said he fears it will add delays to the highway where construction delays have been problematic since early 2022.
“Time consuming, of course it’s very time consuming for sure,” he said. “I get that they have to do it eventually, and I get they can't really do it in the winter time, but it is a little frustrating, and it's definitely something you’ve got to plan around.”
In March 2022, UDOT began a project to repair bridges over the Provo River on Highway 40 at the northern entrance to the Heber Valley below the Jordanelle Reservoir, and that project is still causing daily delays for drivers heading toward Heber. It was supposed to wrap up last fall, but UDOT said supply chain issues interrupted progress.
Construction and lane closures continued until winter, and crews just resumed last month. Delays vary but typically last around 30 minutes for drivers heading toward Heber City during evening rush hour. UDOT now expects that work and those delays to last into this summer.
Copeland said he hopes UDOT’s current timelines hold true, so thousands of drivers can save time and he can more easily serve his riders.
“Hopefully it is a month. Hopefully it's not extended like it was the last time because you just don't necessarily know how long it's going to be until you can get back or get to wherever you're trying to go," he said. "So, I guess that would be part of the frustration, is not being able to fully commit to our schedules like we're normally used to doing and being able to basically confirm and guarantee that we'll be there at a certain time, mostly because of that traffic.”
After the Silver Creek Junction flyover, UDOT plans to move construction to the main bridge that supports Highway 40, as well as the Kimball Junction and Parleys Summit bridges.
More information on the construction projects is available on UDOT’s website.
