This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It's getting scary for Interstate 80 commuters through Salt Lake City. Too scary for some, who now wend their way along Foothill Boulevard or 2700 South to avoid the narrow, lurching lanes during reconstruction.
"Since I almost hit somebody, I've been taking Foothill in the evening," said Amber Dunsford, a Salt Lake City resident who commutes to Park City daily.
An injury-causing accident on Tuesday, when an object fell from a vehicle and caused a pileup that included a semitrailer, furthered the fear.
Dunsford's near-miss came last week, and she blames it on the constricted area. All eastbound and westbound traffic is moving across five lanes during construction, with a movable barrier changing which direction gets three lanes as morning and evening rush hours dictate.
Those lanes are 11 1/2 feet wide - 6 inches narrower than normal - and there are no emergency lanes for breakdowns.
"I fear for the people who break down, because I've seen it happen," Dunsford said. "It scares the hell out of you, and you almost hit them."
She has seen several rollover accidents since construction between State Street and 1300 East began, most recently on Friday. Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeff Nigbur said trooper supervisors working that stretch of road believe wrecks are up since construction began.
The agency does not have current accident numbers isolated to the stretch in question because the computer software allowing such analysis is being redesigned.
Others complain of poorly marked lanes that shift around. The westbound lanes have especially dingy white stripes.
"At night you can't see the paint, so you really don't know what lane you're in, if any," said Tony Crowson, who manages the Red Lobster restaurant on 1300 East near I-80.
He also questions whether the off-ramps at 700 East and 1300 East are marked well enough in advance.
"If you're in the left lane and you see the sign you've got to shoot across," he said. "I've seen people do it."
The driver angst is no surprise to Utah Department of Transportation project manager John Montoya.
Keeping the stripes visible has been a chore, he said, and crews have hit the road for painting 12 times since the westbound traffic moved over to share the former eastbound lanes in early December.
Snowplows repeatedly have scoured that paint, until a crew went out last weekend and ground grooves into the pavement to hold the paint out of reach from the blades.
Since then, though, it has been too cold to get the paint to adhere, or even to get it out of the trucks unfrozen, he said.
Another problem is the limited success UDOT has had diverting tractor-trailer traffic from the bottleneck. Montoya said it appears that about half of the 10,000 to 12,000 trucks that typically traverse the freeway daily have taken the advice and moved to I-215 or, if traveling toward Wyoming from the north, onto I-84 near Ogden.
"It's just a difficult task," he said. "You could get every single local [truck] driver out of there, but you have a lot of cross-country drivers that you have a hard time connecting with."
Department officials are checking into the legality of forcing all truck traffic off the freeway, Montoya said.
They're unsure whether that's possible without jeopardizing federal funds, given the road's interstate status.
The Utah Trucking Association has twice forwarded the bypass advisory to nationwide truckers using I-80, and will do so again by e-mail this week, Executive Director Dave Creer said.
"I know we had an accident [Tuesday] involving a semitruck, but I drive that every day and I have seen a lot less trucks," Creer said.
Rolayne Fairclough of AAA Utah said she has missed exits herself.
"I've messed up twice," she said. "I had to do that turnaround and everything." So far, though, she hasn't heard complaints from the motor club's members.
As for the tight quarters, Montoya said there's not much to be done.
He believes this segment of I-80 is the most tightly confined stretch of freeway in the state, and UDOT chose to widen it without condemning or buying homes on either side.