Image: UDOT.The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) gave final approval to the project team to use braided ramps on the Payson Interstate 15 interchange, the Daily Herald reports.
UDOT says the braided ramps—ramps that cross over each other—will improve the existing interchange while a new interchange is built approximately .7 miles to the northeast. A new five-lane road, the Nebo Beltway, will connect the new interchange to State Route 198.
“Alternative C1 would provide a free-flow connection between the Main Street interchange and a new interchange connecting to the proposed Nebo Beltway Phase I,” UDOT says in its Record of Decision. “…From the new interchange, motorists would travel on Nebo Beltway Phase I until it intersects with SR-198 at 2100 West, thereby avoiding and reducing congestion at Main Street and the existing interchange.”
The braided ramps were chose from several other options after considering traffic operations and social and economic impacts. It also had the most community support, in part because it left cultural resources, including historic homes on Payson’s Main Street, untouched.
“The existing infrastructure will not be able to adequately serve the projected transportation demands from a rapidly growing population in and around Payson,” the Record of Decision states, according to the news agency.
