ST. GEORGE – While work on Bluff Street has taken a break for Independence Day, it returns Thursday at 6 a.m. with some notable changes that will remain in place until September.
While not much will be different during the day, that will change starting at 9 p.m.
Read more: So what is this Bluff Street project all about?
Changing lanes
According to a weekly email update the Utah Department of Transportation, traffic control teams will be placing barrels, flat-panel barricades and signage to move all traffic onto the newly paved lanes on Bluff Street from 100 South to 700 North.
There will be one lane in each direction with a center turn lane. Traffic will be in this configuration until September.
Motorists are reminded to obey the speed limit, allow merging traffic from businesses and cross streets, and be patient.
On Thursday night, crews will start rotomilling the travel lanes on the east side of Bluff Street from 100 South to 700 North. This activity is noisy, and there will be an increase in truck traffic as they haul off the old asphalt for recycling.
Businesses along the east side of Bluff Street will remain open with access points marked along the roadway.
Read more: Businesses still struggling during Bluff Street project, hope customers will brave the construction
With the east side of road shut down, there will be an impact on part of Diagonal Street.
Diagonal Street closed at 700 West
Diagonal Street at 700 West is closed until September.
There is no right turn from Bluff Street onto Diagonal Street and no right turn access from Diagonal Street to northbound Bluff Street.
Work schedule
Work crews work from 5:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with some night and weekend work done as the project continues.
The Bluff Street widening project is slated to conclude in the fall, and was reported to be 40 percent complete by mid-June.
Alternative routes
Individuals who generally use the Sunset Boulevard to Bluff Street to St. George Boulevard corridor as their primary east-west route through town may want to consider Dixie Drive or Valley View Drive connecting to Sunset Boulevard, or Red Hills Parkway connecting to Snow Canyon Parkway as alternate travel routes.
Details of road widening and improvements
- Upgrading and improving all utilities that are buried in the current roadway, including storm drain, culinary water, sewer, fiber optics, gas, electrical and an upgraded advanced traffic management system.
- Increasing capacity with additional northbound and southbound lanea from 100 South to 1250 North through this heavily traveled section of road.
- Reconfiguring the intersection at Sunset Boulevard and Bluff Street to improve safety, traffic flow and handle projected traffic increases.
- Adding a dedicated right-turn lane from westbound St George Boulevard to northbound Bluff Street to improve safety and mobility.
State and city road planners have said for years that improvements to northern Bluff Street are needed to better handle current and future congestion concerns that accompany the area’s continuing growth.
Bluff Street carries over 44,000 vehicles every day, with that number expected to climb to 65,000 by 2040 as the population climbs from over 150,000 to around 321,000.
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Twitter: @MoriKessler
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Great that we see an end to this construction. But in 5 years they will be at it again with an overpass. It’s the way things are done now.
“It’s the way things are done now”?
As far as I know the only way to add roads is by constructing them. Always been this way