The west side of the Salt Lake Valley will see a healthy share of new road, interchange and transit construction this season as crews for the Utah Department of Transportation gear up.
Some projects — like a new rapid bus line that will run from West Valley City to Murray — will be completely new to Utahns. Others, like the ongoing Bangerter Highway interchange project, continue along new stretches of familiar roads.
“We hope to have the interchanges all open by the end of this year,” said Rob Wight, the UDOT region director, who called the work on Bangerter “good news” for residents in that part of the valley.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Cars pass by a bus stop under construction along 4500 South in Taylorsville, Wednesday, April 16, 2025.
“What that gives you,” Wight promised commuters, “is basically no stop lights all the way from 4700 South... until you get on [Interstate 15] down in Draper.”
UDOT plans to spend a total of about $1.7 billion statewide on 297 construction projects starting or continuing this year, the vast majority of which will expand car capacity on Utah’s roads.
Officials announced the agency’s summer construction plans Wednesday at an event held where a new I-15 interchange will be built at 1800 North in Sunset.
Among top highlights statewide, UDOT will widen a portion of U.S. Route 189 along Deer Creek Reservoir for $53 million; replace two Interstate 84 bridges in Weber Canyon for $52 million; and add lanes to Interstate 80 near the Tooele-Salt Lake County border for $38 million.
Construction on the controversial I-15 widening project from Farmington to Salt Lake City isn’t due to start until 2027.
Four major west Salt Lake County construction projects will get underway this summer: the Bangerter interchanges, the Midvalley Express route, the Mountain View Corridor extension to Lehi and Interstate 215 upgrades from North Temple to State Route 201.
UDOT has been working on replacing stoplights with traditional freeway interchanges along Bangerter, a key north-south road on the west side of the valley, for more than a decade now.
Wight said four new interchanges — at 4700 South, 9800 South, 13400 South and 2700 West — along the highway are set to open this year. He argued the stoplight-heavy road was adequate when it was built, but no longer meets traffic needs.
Crews will also start building out the Utah Transit Authority’s Midvalley Express bus route, the third of its kind along the Wasatch Front.
That line will serve 15 stations from the West Valley Central TRAX stop to the Murray Central TRAX platform, running mostly along 4500 South to 4700 South and 2700 West. UDOT will be constructing a bus-only lane along some of the route, along with traffic signals giving UTA buses a priority.
“We’re going to continue to build our roads out, but as important, is transit,” Wight said. “Transit has got to be a bigger part of the equation for transportation in Utah.”
Buses on Midvalley Express route will run at 15-minute intervals and create a fast, east-west connection in the middle of the Salt Lake Valley when it opens in fall 2026.
In the far southern reaches of the Salt Lake Valley, UDOT will add four miles to the Mountain View Corridor, giving commuters a new route between Lehi and Bluffdale starting in spring 2026.
Lehi, Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain are Utah’s fastest growing cities, according to the most recent federal data. UDOT will add wildlife fencing and a multiuse trail alongside the expansion.
Orange cones will also bloom on the west side of Salt Lake City this summer as teams address aging pavement on I-215 and its ramps to SR-201, Interstate 80 and California Avenue. Some of that work will continue through summer of 2026.