US 89 upgrade finished: ‘This is much safer. There’s free-flowing traffic.’
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- Layton Mayor Joy Petro, left, and Davis County Commissioner Randy Elliot pose together at a ceremony on Friday, June 30, 2023, to mark completion of the massive upgrade of U.S. 89 through much of Davis County. The ceremony was held in the park-and-ride lot at the U.S. 89-Antelope Drive intersection.
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- A new section of U.S. 89 at Antelope Drive, photographed Friday, June 30, 2023. Officials marked the completion of the massive upgrade of the roadway through Davis County, which took three years to finish.
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- This undated photo shows one of the new overpasses over U.S. 89 in Davis County. Officials on Friday, June 30, 2023, marked the completion of the massive upgrade of the roadway through Davis County, which took three years to finish.
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- Utah Senate President Stuart Adams speaks at a ceremony on Friday, June 30, 2023, to mark completion of the massive upgrade of U.S. 89 through much of Davis County. The ceremony was held in the park-and-ride lot at the U.S. 89-Antelope Drive intersection.
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- This undated photo shows one of the upgraded sections of U.S. 89 in Davis County. Officials on Friday, June 30, 2023, marked the completion of the massive upgrade of the roadway through Davis County, which took three years to finish.
LAYTON — After three years of orange-and-white barriers, closed traffic lanes, detours and other obstacles, the massive upgrade of U.S. 89 through northern Davis County is complete.
At times after work started in earnest in April 2020, driving the roadway — a key connector between Weber and Davis counties and Salt Lake City — could be a tense experience given lane restrictions, the presence of workers and heavy equipment, and more. It’s gradually gotten better in recent months as work has wound down, and Utah and Davis County leaders gathered Friday to mark the end of the work.
“This is much safer. There’s free-flowing traffic. There’s less conflict points,” said Utah Department of Transportation spokesman Mitch Shaw. The upgrades are designed to handle traffic flow through 2050.
The $504 million project called for widening about 9 miles of the roadway between Farmington and South Weber from two lanes each way to three. Significantly, it also entailed the addition of four interchanges where stoplights used to regulate the flow of east-west and north-south traffic, making travel safer and quicker.
“It’s a lot safer to get north and south along the corridor. Getting east and west is a lot easier now. You’re not crossing live traffic, you’re going up over bridges,” said UDOT’s Mike Romero, the manager of the project. At top traffic times, backups at the stoplights that used to regulate traffic flow were extensive.
Davis County Commissioner Randy Elliot said traveling between Farmington and South Weber could take 20-30 minutes before the upgrades. Now that’s been reduced to 10 minutes. “For the most part, you can get up and down the corridor pretty quickly without having to stop,” Romero said.
U.S. 89 is a key north-south transit route along the Wasatch Front, together with Interstate 15. UDOT is currently adding a third north-south arterial between I-15 and the Great Salt Lake in western Davis County, the West Davis Highway, which is eventually to extend into Weber County.
Senate President Stuart Adams, among several speakers Friday, lauded UDOT officials’ willingness to listen to local concerns as the project edged ahead and to factor them in the plans. He’s a Republican from Layton.
As a result of citizen feedback, UDOT redesigned the upgrade to have U.S. 89 travel under the four east-west interchanges instead of above them. That has the effect of limiting U.S. 89 noise pollution impacting residents along the roadway. By keeping U.S. 89 at or slightly below ground level, it also helps maintain the view of the mountains for people living on the west side of the arterial.
“I want to compliment UDOT … for listening,” Adams said.
Adams noted that initial environmental studies into the upgrade date to the 1990s and also recalled how dangerous the roadway could be when stoplights regulated intersecting east-west and north-south traffic.
“I had friends and neighbors who had actually been hit and killed on Highway 89,” he said, in addition to his own close calls. “Safety is a big deal and, again, knowing that people have been hit or killed and seeing this great facility that’s a lot safer is a big deal not only for this community, but for the people who travel through it.”
Layton Mayor Joy Petro said the upgrade improves east-west traffic flow between the sections of the city that sit on either side of U.S. 89.
Now, the bottleneck traveling the roadway occurs at the U.S. 89-Interstate 84 crossing in the South Weber area, the northern endpoint of the upgrade area. UDOT officials, however, are investigating possible road improvements there to smooth the flow, though work is probably years in the offing.