Motorists in Silver Creek Canyon should prepare for delays this week as construction crews pave a section of eastbound Interstate 80 near Tollgate.
At least one lane of traffic will remain open as workers complete the project between Silver Creek and Wanship. The construction is scheduled to be finished in early October.
The work has been underway since August and a section of westbound Interstate 80 was paved last week. Paving of the eastbound lanes was scheduled to begin Monday.
The paving of the eastbound side of the freeway should be completed this week, said Mardi Pearson, a spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Transportation.
Meanwhile, construction crews are scheduled to repave all four ramps at the Tollgate exit on Friday.
According to Pearson, UDOT will not allow complete closures of the ramps on both sides of the freeway while the paving is underway.
“At all times there will be one on-bound and one off-bound ramp on Friday during the paving,” Pearson said. “If you’re going eastbound on I-80 and they’re doing the eastbound on-ramp, there will be a sign on I-80 saying use the Wanship detour exit. Then they will pull you back around westbound to the Tollgate ramp.
“On the westbound side, obviously it will be the Silver Creek/U.S. 40 ramp. It will pull people out for about a mile or two to the next exit and then force them to retrace.”
Tollgate resident Diane Foster said the ramp closures probably will not confuse her neighbors too much.
“Most people who live in Tollgate are either working in Salt Lake or they are working in the Park City area, so they are coming from that direction,” Foster said. “I think a lot of people just sometimes aren’t used to going down to Wanship. It’s not that far.”
She said the road work in Silver Creek Canyon hasn’t interfered with drivers.
“It has had so little impact on us and the road is amazingly good,” Foster said in a telephone interview. “It’s a minor inconvenience, but what we get is amazing so no complaints at all.”
The project has also not disrupted travel for those using the Tollgate exit for accessing Promontory. Promontory has entrances off Interstate 80 and U.S. 40.
“It may be the case that the members who are frequenting Promontory right now are entering from (U.S.) 40 and probably are not even aware of the issues,” Promontory spokeswoman Melissa Garland said.
But Promontory residents may experience minor delays when the ramps are repaved on Friday, she said.
“I think they hope to get it all done in one day,” Garland said. “Obviously with two entrances here it’s not a big problem for us.”
The contractor anticipates each of the four ramps taking about two hours to repave. Pearson said she expects the ramps to be finished on Friday.
“After the ramp paving on Friday, they’ll do just some minor work next week,” Pearson said. “They hope to have that project wrapped up by a week from Friday.”
The new paving could prolong the life of the road, she said.
“There is so much going on underneath the road over time and if a road hasn’t had a reconstruct in 10 years, an overlay will extend the life of the road,” Pearson said.