UINTAH -- A project to make it safer and easier to access U.S. 89 is planned for early next year.
The Utah Department of Transportation has announced proposed improvements in the area of U.S. 89 and the Interstate 84 interchange in Uintah, which officials say will improve access to properties adjacent to U.S. 89 and make turning on and off the busy highway much safer.
UDOT Region One spokesman Vic Saunders said that, in the last few years, drivers have had difficulty accessing U.S. 89 from city side streets because traffic volumes are increasing and it is difficult to find gaps in traffic to enter the roadway.
In spring 2010, UDOT began a study on the viability of a traffic signal at 6600 South and U.S. 89 after city officials were concerned that residents of their community were making potentially unsafe turns into and across oncoming traffic in an attempt to travel north to the Ogden area.
UDOT also studied other alternatives that might provide the safe highway access without a signal being installed, but determined the signals were the only way to go.
As part of the project, UDOT will realign 6600 South in Uintah to provide a new signalized access onto U.S. 89.
"In that area, there is some potential for side crashes and T-bone-type crashes, so we're trying to make it safer," Saunders said. "The signals will provide protection for people making turns."
The state also will install a median barrier between the railroad structures on U.S. 89, eliminate the signal for the ramp onto I-84 westbound and realign the I-84 westbound off-ramp.
According to UDOT, the design for the project is now in final review, and construction is expected to begin in early 2012 and last several months.
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