Utah Department of Transportation spokesman Nile Easton said the agency received more than 100 calls Friday, some of them profane and most of them angry about the interstate lanes riddled with dangerous potholes.

The Tribune also received several calls and e-mails about the hazardous stretch, alleging UDOT malfeasance and a possible conspiracy stretching back to Gov. Mike Leavitt's administration.

It turns out there is a connection with Leavitt, at least as far as timing goes.

In 1998, contractors laid the 2-inch layer of asphalt atop a roadbed consisting of 18 inches of coarse stone, 6 inches of smaller crushed stone and nine inches of “hot-mix” asphalt, Easton said.

The top layer is a porous mix designed to inhibit black-ice freezing and to allow lateral drainage. UDOT engineers say such layers have life spans of six to eight years. Easton said UDOT, reasoning the layer could make it through seven years, thought it could safely replace it starting in September instead of waiting until spring.

But a spate of cold weather - that is, daytime temperatures below 55 degrees - lopped two weeks from the 6-week construction schedule. UDOT left two of the six lanes paved with the old asphalt.

Then polar air moved in this past week, freezing moisture between the two layers, so weakening the top layer that car and truck traffic essentially shattered the pavement. The result was 2-inch-deep potholes so huge they couldn't be avoided.

As careening motorists raised the alarm, UDOT called in three contractors to make emergency fixes, which they hope to have completed before Monday.

That will add up to $50,000 to the project's original $2.5 million cost.