SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Transportation is taking a major step in the Mountain View Corridor Project.
The four-mile section crews are currently working on is now more than 50 percent complete.
UDOT says the stretch of the corridor is important because it connects to SR 201 and brings the project one step closer to being finished.
The Salt Lake Valley is growing rapidly with more people moving in every year which means more congestion on streets and highways.
“North-south freeway on the west side of the valley has been something that everyone’s been asking about,” said UDOT engineer Codee Raymond. “We’ve slowly been building it and so this is just one of the big steps in the right direction.”
When the Mountain View Corridor project is complete, it will connect from I-80 to SR 73 in Utah County.
“Looking into the future, this is going to be one of our most important routes in the valley here because of all the growth that’s happening,” said UDOT spokesperson John Gleason. “There’s so many businesses that are developing, so many people that are moving out here to the west side of the Salt Lake Valley. it’s important for us to keep up.”
The new corridor on the west side of the valley should free up some of the other heavily traveled roads.
“It’s going to free up a lot of the other roads once this one’s open,” Raymond said. “5600 west, I-215, some of the other roads that get impacted severely because of the growth that we’ve had out west.”
This week crews will be connecting the east-west corridor to 201 with a bridge.
“When you think about where we’re standing right now it’s going to be be one of the most heavily traveled routes here in another couple decades,” Gleason said. “It’s something to think about.”
To get this new bridge installed, Monday night and Tuesday night from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., eastbound lanes of 201 will be closed and then on August 5 and 6, the westbound lanes will be closed.
