On Wednesday, UDOT officials held a construction kickoff media event to announce 152 new and ongoing projects while on the construction site of one of the state’s largest ongoing projects — the 1800 North and Interstate 15 intersection project located in Sunset adjacent to Hill Air Force Base.

Rob Wight, UDOT Region One director, told the Standard-Examiner the new $385 million interchange has been under construction for just a few weeks.

“This one has just barely kicked off,” he said. “We’re excited about this because it’s going to be shifting the freeway and the final project will have the interchange right behind us instead of on I-15. What that allows us to do is to build off the interstate and tie it back in after we’ve already got it built.”

He said it ties in with the ongoing 5600 South/I-15 interchange project just to the north.

“These are both accesses on to the base, which is a big part of Northern Utah,” he said. “Hill Air Force Base is the number one employer in this part of the state — a lot of folks getting on to the base at the same time then leaving about the same time. This will help facilitate that on-and-off base traffic and help us to be better for those folks.”

Wight said the upgrading of 5600 South and 1800 North will also be a boon to east-west traffic in a region that’s seeing huge population growth.

“Northern Davis County is growing much like other parts of the state,” he said. “It’s not only north-south traffic that’s important; it’s also east-west, and this is going to be a benefit to the cities of Clinton and Sunset, Roy and Clearfield that are close here. … It’s important to establish a grid so that there’s lots of options for travel, so this 1800 North and 5600 South will both be east-west corridors that can accommodate more traffic.”

Work on the 1800 North interchange project will also include widening 1800 North to 2000 West and an overpass over the railroad at 500 West. The project is expected to finish in the fall of 2027.