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Draper Journal

Upcoming road projects for Draper’s streets

Mar 15, 2021 11:24AM ● By Mimi Darley Dutton

The roundabout at 1300 East and Pioneer Road will be one of several projects for the city’s streets. Another lane will be added to the roundabout to ease congestion. (Mimi Darley Dutton/City Journals)

By Mimi Darley Dutton | [email protected]

Buckle up, proceed with patience and plan for potential alternate routes. The road construction season will soon be upon us and several projects are planned for Draper’s roads. 

Scott Cooley serves as Draper’s Public Works Director and Todd Hammond is an engineer in the department. They confirmed the following projects planned for the city’s streets in 2021. 

  1. 900 East & 12300 South – A new, updated traffic signal will be installed at the intersection and curb, gutter and sidewalk will be added to 900 East where there is none, “probably on both sides,” Cooley said, adding that the pavement in that area will also be reconstructed.
  2. 12200 South & 700 East – Widen the north side of 12200 South, just west of 700 East. Add curb, gutter and sidewalk to tie in to where those already exist. 
  3. 450 East & 12300 South – A new signal will be installed where there hasn’t been one before. It will be coordinated with the 300 East & 12300 South signal for the flow of traffic. “UDOT will actually install the signal this summer or fall. Our portion of the project is widening 450 East just prior to that signal. In other words, we need a left turn pocket and there’s not one now, so we need to widen that so the signal will function,” Cooley said. 
  4. Highland Drive & Vestry Road – A new signal will be installed where Vestry Road crosses Highland Drive, near the roundabout and the new recreation center. “There are bus stops in that area. This signal will help the safety of that intersection for both pedestrians and vehicles,” Cooley said. Highland Drive will be widened to add an additional lane in each direction so there will be a right and a left turn lane as well as a through lane. 
  5. 1300 East & Pioneer Road roundabout – Another lane will be added to handle increased traffic in the area. “We will add a second lane through the roundabout in each the northbound and southbound directions, and dedicated right turn lanes will be added on the eastbound and westbound (Pioneer Road) approaches,” Hammond said. 
  6. Bangerter Parkway & Vestry Road – A new traffic signal will be installed near the power substation, with Vestry Road on one side and Future Way on the other. Cooley explained that when Pluralsight gets going and with large apartment complexes filling to capacity, this traffic signal is needed.
  7. 300 East & 12300 South widening – The north and south legs of 300 East will be widened to add dual left turns in each direction while the already existing single left turn lanes on 12300 South (Draper Parkway), going north or south on 300 East, will remain unchanged. “We have a lot of congestion on 300 East so these dual left turns will help alleviate that,” Cooley said.
  8. Reconstructing Deer Ridge Drive in SunCrest – “The pavement is in poor condition, so we’ll be reconstructing the pavement, improving the drainage system on the roadway, and also working on the water line prior to construction,” Hammond said.

The city’s public works department had great success trying a process called “full-depth reclamation” this past year, so they’ll plan to do more of that in the future. “It’s like rototilling a garden. We bring in heavy equipment and grind up the asphalt with the base material of the roadway, we add cement product to it, then we apply the asphalt to the base material that’s been hardened and it’s a great structure. It provides a lot of strength and the process is so much faster than the typical reconstruction process, probably less than one quarter the time of doing it the standard construction way, and it’s about 30% less expensive,” Cooley said. This process was done on 300 East from 11400 South to 11800 South and also in SunCrest on the roads in Oak Vista, immediately north of Deer Ridge Drive. 

The order of the projects, the start dates and lengths of each project have yet to be determined. “These projects will be bid out, some are out now and some will go out soon, and the construction window can vary from spring to early fall,” Cooley said.