Spanish Fork hopes for interchange rebuild

SPANISH FORK (Deseret News) — A scoring system that considers value to the public could make the difference whether the I-15 ramps to and from Main Street and U.S. 6 get rebuilt with the I-15 Corridor Expansion project.

The three design-build teams vying for the $1.7 billion CORE contract have all taken a look at the maze of ramps that make up the system to see what improvements could be made, city engineer Richard Heap said. The most critical is the Main Street interchange, where traffic backs up under the narrow I-15 overpass during rush hour twice a day.

CORE seeks to rebuild I-15 from American Fork to Provo, then add two more high-occupancy vehicle lanes ending at Spanish Fork. However, Spanish Fork city officials and the state legislative group that represents south Utah County say that the Main Street and U.S. 6 interchange is a more critical rebuild than adding more HOV lanes.

Originally, the Utah Department of Transportation studied freeway improvements from 12300 South in Salt Lake County to Payson, a distance of 43 miles, CORE director Dal Hawks said Thursday at a gathering of state and local leaders and business owners affected by the heavy Main Street traffic.

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