The Associated Contractors of Utah awarded Ames Construction and Wadsworth Brothers Construction the 2020 Project of the Year, Overall Highway/Transportation, for its work on the I-15 Technology Corridor, which just wrapped up at the end of 2020.
The joint venture of Ames Construction and Wadsworth Brothers Construction were recently honored by the Associated General Contractors of Utah with the 2020 Project of the Year, Overall Highway/Transportation, for its work on the I-15 Technology Corridor from Lehi Main Street to SR 92.
Ranked as the Utah Department of Transportation's top priority project for 2018, construction crews were able to put the finishing touches on the complex project in October 2020, UDOT announced.
With nearly a half billion dollars at work, this most recent project includes the state's first one-way frontage road system, along with two redesigned interchanges and new trails for pedestrians and cyclists.
This $430 million project to widen I-15 helped improve traffic congestion between Lehi's Main Street and SR 92 [Timpanogas Highway]. This area is one of the fastest-growing areas in Utah and is also known as "Silicon Slopes" for its increasing number of technology-based businesses. This is the final section of freeway between Salt Lake City and Spanish Fork that is only four lanes.
"Ames Construction has been awarded Overall Highway/Transportation Award by the AGC of Utah for work performed on the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) design-build I-15 Technology Corridor project near Lehi, Utah. The project included widening I-15 to six lanes in each direction with new concrete pavement; constructing underpass bridges and frontage roads; smoothing out concrete and bridge transitions; and connecting new local pedestrian and cyclist trails to a regional system," Ames Construction said in a statement.
Additional scope of work included:
- Two additional travel lanes in each direction;
- New bridge over I-15 at Triumph Boulevard;
- One-way frontage roads and redesigned interchanges between S.R. 92 and 2100 North;
- Reconstructed bridges at cross streets and railroad crossings.
"A project like this takes a small army of outstanding people to be successful and the folks from Ames Construction and the rest of the joint venture did a stellar job managing the project and all of the subcontractors like Forterra for the last few years," said Jonathan Kirk, general manager of Forterra.
The I-15 Technology Corridor is considered the final piece in reconstructing the freeway in northern Utah County, along with the I-15 CORE project, The Point project and the Access Utah County project — all completed since 2010 at a cost of more than $2.1 billion, according to UDOT project director Boyd Humphreys.
"Before the project started, there was kind of a bottleneck in this 4-mile section," Humphreys said in an interview with the Desert News. "Now we have eliminated that. We plan on seeing benefits in travel time throughout the project and it's going to allow better access to the area.
"We were able to close some lanes during that time when traffic was down and do some things that normally we wouldn't have been able to do because of the [heavier] traffic, so there were some benefits that really did help the project," he said.
"It's definitely going to help the situation with the growth we're seeing down there with all of the companies that are moving in here every year," Humphreys added. "It's become a technology hub, so that growth is going to continue and it's important for us to stay on top of it — to be able to address the future and be able to deliver the best transportation system."
With the overall expansion of the I-15 freeway, UDOT has replaced aging infrastructure with new pavement that is designed to last another 40 years, built 17 new bridges — including the new bridge construction over I-15 at Triumph Boulevard in Lehi. The bridges were redesigned to accommodate the added lanes on I-15, the frontage road system and new active transportation features, which are designed to last 75 years, a news release stated.
"It's astounding when you look at how Lehi has transformed over the last decade. It's gone from a small town to one of the centers for technology in the world right now," Humphreys said. "It's really been a focal point, so we want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to address that growth and make sure our freeways and state roads are ready to accommodate the growth we've seen here and we'll continue to see." CEG
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