The Utah Department of Transportation has completed an environmental review necessary to widen the freeway and extend the express lanes from Salt Lake County all the way to U.S. Highway 6 near Payson, but does not have funding to build the whole project.
Instead it will tap $2.6 billion in state-approved funds to rebuild most of the Utah County portion - from American Fork to Spanish Fork. That's the most-congested part, UDOT spokesman Nile Easton said.
"Down the road," he added, "we can certainly look at [the rest of the project]." The full project would cost about $5 billion to $7 billion once bond debt is repaid. "This marks a major milestone for the region's thousands of drivers anxious for relief from traffic tie-ups," Peters said in a written statement.
She called the freeway one of her department's six priority "Corridors of the Future" because I-15 connects growing population centers from Salt Lake City to San Diego.
- Brandon Loomis
