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LEHI — Utah transportation crews are set to address one of the main complaints they've heard from I-15 drivers passing through the Point of the Mountain in recent years: the painted lane stripes.
Beginning Sunday night, Utah Department of Transportation crews will repaint the stripes with what's known as "contrast striping" in each direction from the Point of Mountain to Main Street in Lehi. From 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sundays through Fridays throughout October, crews will close up to four freeway lanes in each direction to accomplish this, according to UDOT spokesman John Gleason.
"The whole idea behind this striping project is to make the striping as visible as it can be and to enhance safety," he said. "We want to do everything we can to make that striping as visible as possible and make the roads safe as they can be."
Gleason explained the current stripes can be difficult to see beginning around fall and continuing into winter because the lower angle of the sun, and then snowstorms can make visibility "more challenging." That's a problem because close to 200,000 vehicles use that section of road daily.
Contrast striping is a new method of lane striping that UDOT officials feel can help with those issues. Gleason said they tested it on the freeway from about 9000 South to the Bangerter Highway in Salt Lake County and they've received mostly positive feedback since. It's why they plan to expand the process in Lehi and then other parts of the state in the next year.
"We're really encouraged by the results we've seen already on the striping we've laid down in Salt Lake County using this method and we're actually going to be rolling out several projects throughout the state in the next year or so," he said. "Striping is a focus for us. We want to make sure people are able to see the striping easily."
The new stripes in the Lehi area are expected to remain in place for the next few years once the project is completed.
But that's not the only method. UDOT is also currently testing over 100 striping products in a three-mile section of I-84 West near Tremonton in northern Utah. That's helping crews narrow which products work the best for Utah roads.
