UDOT Chip-Sealing nine Miles of Sanpete Roads

By Benjamin Thornberg

Staff Writer

SANPETE — The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has been working on chip-seal projects on roughly 9 miles of state highway in Sanpete County this week. Drivers should expect delays.

“These are fairly fast moving projects but they’re very disruptive for the day or two that they’re in progress,” said community relations coordinator Kevin Kitchen.

Chip-sealing places rocks down for vehicles to drive over during the period construction. This slows the speed limit to 45 mph in all affected locations. It also severely delays traffic, lasting up to several hours, Kitchen said. Afterwards the crew returns to sweep the road for any remaining rocks and puts a flush coat of asphalt down as well as new stripes.

The first of these projects took place between Keller Lane and Christensen Road along U.S. 89 for 2 miles between Ephraim and Manti. The chip-sealing started Monday and ended Tuesday.

The next area of construction was on U.S. 89 south of Centerfield, about 3.5 miles from Sugar Factory Lane to Sunflower lane. It started Tuesday and finished Wednesday.

Today and tomorrow, UDOT will finish up with 3.5 miles of S.R. 28 on the Sanpete County line north to Yuba Reservoir.

In between Manti and Ephraim, traffic was only moving in a single direction for several hours. Once two-way traffic was permitted again, the road was narrowed. The delays lasted up to 15 minutes.

UDOT has not scheduled a specific time for crews to return to lay down fresh coats and new stripes.