Oak Hills Constructors — a joint venture between Sterling Construction’s subsidiary — Ralph L. Wadsworth — and Granite Construction completed the U.S. 89 reconstruction project in Utah in three years.
(UDOT photo)
Oak Hills Constructors — a joint venture between Sterling Construction's subsidiary, Ralph L. Wadsworth, and Granite Construction — recently celebrated a milestone on a Utah Department of Transportation construction project.
The completion of the U.S. 89 reconstruction is UDOT's largest project completed project in a decade, when I-15 CORE in Utah County and the first section of Mountain View Corridor in Salt Lake County were both finished in 2012.
Crews widened the highway from Main Street in Farmington to SR 193 in Layton, installed new pavement and built four new interchanges with on- and off-ramps to improve traffic flow and enhance safety.
The project was completed in three years.
As part of an event to celebrate the milestone, approximately 100 people walked, ran or rode bikes on the highway's new frontage road system. The event started at the Antelope Drive Park and Ride and ended at the Adams Canyon Trailhead parking lot, which was relocated and enlarged as part of the U.S. 89 project so local residents could more easily access this recreation area.
Members from the Oak Hills Constructors team, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, Mayor Joy Petro, Mayor Tamara Tran, other city and county officials, UDOT Region One Director Rob Wight, employees from UDOT and were on hand during the celebration as well.
Overall, the project upgrades included:
- Removed the old pavement on approximately nine miles of the highway and replaced it with new asphalt;
- Widened U.S. 89 to three lanes in both directions;
- Built four new interchanges with on- and off-ramps at 400 North in Fruit Heights and at Oak Hills Drive, Gordon Avenue, and Antelope Drive in Layton;
- Created a new frontage road system parallel to the highway to improve access to local neighborhoods and provide a safer route for cyclists.
- Constructed a total of six new bridges crossing the highway at the four interchanges and at Nicholls Road in Fruit Heights and Crestwood Road in Kaysville to improve connections between communities.
- Added a new right-turn lane from eastbound I-84 to southbound U.S. 89 that allows drivers to continue through the intersection without stopping, and extended the on-ramp entrance for drivers traveling on northbound US-89 to eastbound I-84.
- Extended Gordon Avenue to create a new east-west connection from I-15 to US-89 and accommodate Layton City's plans for a future town center.
- Installed three new pedestrian tunnels to enable future city and county trail expansions, and built a new multi-use trail to connect the South Weber frontage road to Valley View Drive.
"With this project, we set out to improve our transportation system for everyone, whether they're in a car, on a bike, riding a motorcycle, walking or using a wheelchair," Wight said. "This newly upgraded highway will help everyone in this area get where they want to go more safely and efficiently than they could before."
Input from the community and local cities was incorporated throughout design and construction, from determining whether US-89 would cross under or over local streets to selecting the aesthetics for the bridges over the highway.
Project Challenges
"The most challenging aspect of this project, by a long shot, has been the relocation of existing utilities," said Michael Romero, U.S. 89 project director. "There are more than 150 miles of utilities in our project area. Originally, U.S. 89 was envisioned as crossing over the local streets, but based on public input we changed the design, and now U.S. 89 crosses under local streets. This change added a ton of complexity to the design.
"Another main challenge is maintaining access to the local communities while we rebuild the highway," Romero added. "Our contractor had a complex phasing plan that kept all existing lanes open on U.S. 89 during weekdays, limiting most lane closures to nights and weekends and keeps local streets open."
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