FARMINGTON—For the next four to five months, motorists traveling on Legacy Parkway and I-15 will see some big changes as the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) places beams for bridge structures over I-15, Legacy and the railroad to connect with the new West Davis Highway. The first of the series of closures southbound on Legacy took place last weekend and northbound closures are set for the Feb. 4.

“The first of eight beams went up the weekend of Jan. 21,” said Rex Harris, UDOT project director. “Those will be connected together to make a set of four longer beams that will go over top of the southbound Legacy Parkway. We want to limit the impact to drivers. All of the traffic from Legacy will be forced over to I-15.”

Each of the four longer beams are 192 feet long, more than 6 feet tall and weigh about 99,000 pounds, according to UDOT. 

The West Davis Highway is a new 16-mile, 4-lane divided highway under construction in western Davis County between I-15/Legacy Parkway in Farmington and the future extension of S.R 193 in West Point, a UDOT release said. Six new interchanges will provide access to Farmington, Kaysville, Layton and Syracuse. The project also includes more than 10 miles of new trails. Its anticipated completion is 2024.

“Crossing over I-15 will be the milestone,” said Harris. “We’ll be using big heavy 300 foot beams, about the size of a football field. We’ll get it done as quickly as possible to limit the impact.”

I-15 has five to six times the traffic of Legacy, he said. “Legacy has about 30,000 vehicles a day and I-15 is pushing 150,000 a day. The biggest route will be Parrish Lane to Legacy. We’ll have signage back on I-15 before I-80 so that drivers have a few choices to get off before they get to Parrish Lane.”

By the time drivers get to Parrish Lane there will be 30 percent more traffic, said Harris. “They need to plan ahead to get to I-215 or onto Legacy as soon as they can. That will make it so much better for traffic flow. The schedule may need to be tweaked depending on the weather but we’re anticipating it to take place mid-April.”

The Jan. 21 closure finished ahead of schedule and Harris hopes that will continue. “That exceeded our expectations,” he said. “We’ve planned ahead to impact people as little as possible so it will be a win, win for everybody.”

For more information about the West Davis Highway visit the project website at westdavis.udot.utah.gov or the Facebook group, facebook.com/groups/westdavishighway. The project team can also be reached at 877-298-1991.