Warm weather means it’s time for road work on local roads and highways. Castle Country Radio was able to catch up with Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) Spokesperson, Kevin Kitchen to talk about upcoming road projects taking place in and around our area.
There will be some orange cone work taking place this summer around the Solider Summit area. “We do still have a major project to make sure we finish paving between Tucker and Solider Summit. So that one is going to be taking place this year, I don’t have the exact specific time frame on that but as soon as we get warm enough temperatures, we do have a contractor on board. So we’ll continue to work US-6 with just some overlay,” stated Kitchen. Once the weather warms up work will begin on this section so travelers will expect some delays when traveling through the canyon this summer.
Work will begin soon at the Intersection of US-6 and Duchesne turn-off. “What we’re looking at this year is basically we will be upgrading that intersection, the junction there. We also will be working on some pavement and a passing lane on 191 between mile post 280 and 282, so this is up in the northern end of the section,” said Kitchen. UDOT also has pavement preservation slated as well; they will also be installing some new guardrails and cattle guards along that route too.
“Another thing we’ve been looking at is obviously the burn scar run off that we’ve had in the past year and the issues that we’ve had with culverts and so forth. We do have a culvert rehabilitation project that is taking place in your area. We’re going to be in between mile post 207 and 243 up towards Utah County,” said Kitchen. Workers will be checking the lining of the culverts along this area but the work shouldn’t pose a problem for drivers unless workers run into some issues.
Drivers that rely on the UDOT cameras throughout the canyon will be happy to know that they will be installing new ones this summer. “We’ll also be updating a few of our cameras to higher quality better ones. We use to use a third-party for some of our cameras up US-6. So some of those are getting replaced with new cameras, digital, that will be within UDOTs purview rather than contracted out to a third-party. So hopefully a little more reliable for you there,” explained Kitchen.
There are some projects that will be taking place in Emery County as well and folks can find those on https://www.udot.utah.gov/connect/ and if you search for planning you will be able to see the different projects that are scheduled.