All lanes of Interstate 15 near Lehi are now open after crews performed emergency maintenance on the roadway for more than five hours Monday.
Just before 6 p.m., the Utah Department of Transportation tweeted that northbound traffic was flowing normally but said “major delays remain” for southbound traffic.
The maintenance centers around the integrity of several light poles on that stretch of interstate, agency spokesperson Geoff Dupaix said.
Overnight, a light pole fell onto that section of roadway, Dupaix said. No one was injured, but Dupaix said the incident prompted an investigation into other interstate light poles in the area, near milepost 284 in Utah County.
When crews inspected other poles between the Timpanogos Highway and the 2100 North interchange, they discovered that four were cracking, Dupaix said.
UDOT closed all northbound and southbound lanes of I-15 at about 12:30 p.m. so crews could safely remove the light poles.
Traffic in the meantime was diverted onto one-way frontage roads next to the freeway until the poles are removed.
“We’re doing these closures out of an abundance of caution,” Dupaix said. “When we identified these additional poles that needed to be removed, we wanted to make sure that we acted quickly.”
UDOT inspected other poles in the area and found them to be in proper condition, Dupaix said. Crews are investigating what led to the cracks discovered Monday so they can better understand how to properly repair — or replace — other I-15 light poles in the future.