Salt Lake City will add another landmark building to the greater downtown area with completion of the $125-million Public Safety Building, scheduled to open in spring 2013. It will replace the current building occupied by public safety administrators since 1958. Continuing a west-to-east line of civic buildings that includes the state's Matheson Courthouse, the historic City and County Building and the Moshe Safdie-designed Salt Lake City Public Library, the new Public Safety Building will fulfill a multitude of needs, including consolidating the administrative offices of the police and fire departments, central dispatch and a disaster/emergency operations center. It also will
Members of the Utah chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America gathered for their annual convention during the last week of January, with three days of meetings, seminars and a celebration of the construction industry in the Beehive state. Photo by Brian Fryer Spencer P. Eccles of the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development lays out the state's plans to encourage growth and construction in the coming years. In keeping with the theme of “Perspective,” the convention began with a state economic outlook from Spencer P. Eccles, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. Eccles provided some
The Salt Lake City School District is in the final stages of a $401-million seismic upgrade or replacement of all district facilities, with two projects to be completed this summer before the 24-year effort is finally done. Photo by Brian Fryer East High School in the Salt Lake City School District was completely rebuilt as part of a 24-year effort to make all district schools more seismically stable. East was the first of 20 schools rebuilt to meet new seismic and programming standards, while 16 schools were retrofitted. Of the 36 school buildings in the district, 22 were replaced and
The final piece of the funding puzzle for Utah Transit Authority’s TRAX light rail line to the Salt Lake City suburb of Draper was put in place on Dec. 12. Federal Transit Authority Administrator Peter M. Rogoff presented $116 million in federal funds to UTA and Draper city officials to help complete the rail extension. Photo by Brian Fryer FTA administrator Peter Rogoff addresses a gathering of construction workers, Draper City officials, residents and UTA directors on Dec. 12 in Salt Lake City to announce a $116-million grant to finalize funding for UTA's Front Lines 2015 project. Photo by Brian
Nestled in the foothills above Salt Lake City, the $102-million Natural History Museum of Utah in the Rio Tinto Center began welcoming visitors in mid-November. The new museum rests on a section of what was once the shoreline of ancient Lake Bonneville. It has already garnered praise from the design and building community as well as those wishing to explore the state’s unique people, geology and history. The NHMU, administered by the University of Utah, sits on a 17-acre site on the upper southeastern edge of campus with sweeping views of the Salt Lake Valley. The 163,000-sq-ft museum is now
Wheeler Machinery Co. celebrated 60 years in business in November with an afternoon visit from Utah Gov. Gary Herbert at the company’s Salt Lake City headquarters. Wheeler has been a fixture in the Utah construction and mining marketplace as the exclusive dealer and service center for Caterpillar equipment. Photo by Brian Fryer Rob Campbell, president of Wheeler Machinery (left), talks with Utah Gov. Gary Herbert during Wheeler's 60th anniversary celebration in November. Current company president Rob Campbell led the governor on a short tour of Wheeler’s repair and service shop. Herbert watched as technicians in the company’s Component Rebuild Center
The parallel, three-mile stretches of frontage road crossing what used to be farmland west of the Utah County city of Lehi might seem simple enough, but they are the key first portions of the Mountain View Corridor to open for public use. The project is an ambitious 35-mile freeway, transit and trail system connecting 13 municipalities along the western edge of the Salt Lake Valley. Courtesy of UDOT This is one of two bridges over the Jordan River that are part of the recently completed first portion of the Mountain View Corridor highway project in Salt Lake Valley, Utah. The
For decades, traffic congestion in the southern Utah city of St. George was limited to St. George Boulevard, which would swell with traffic during the spring and summer as tourists and retirees crowded into the area to enjoy its temperate climate and nearby national parks. Photo courtesy of UDOT The Dixie Drive Interchange will relieve congestion on I-15 through St. George, Utah. From 2000 to 2005, St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan region in the U.S., according to census data, and traffic congestion was becoming a regular occurrence. During the height of the population boom in this city about 100
The 21-mile-long Provo Reservoir Canal, which has delivered water from the Provo River to farms and residents of northern Utah County for a century, is finally getting a significant makeover. Photo courtesy of Provo River Water Users Association A new steel pipeline will soon carry Provo River water through the Provo Reservoir Canal. Once the pipe is buried, it will be topped with a paved walking trail. Photo courtesy of Provo River Water Users Association The 126-in. steel pipe gradually fills the open canal trench. When complete, the watertight pipeline will save nearly 8,000 acre-ft of water a year. When
It was certainly the largest oversize load that Interstate 15 in Utah County had ever seen or likely ever will see, as the Utah Dept. of Transportation�s I-15 CORE team moved the 354-ft, four-ton Sam White Bridge into place over the new freeway overnight on March 26. Photos: UDOT The event near the town of American Fork on a misty, cold Saturday night was not only a milestone for UDOT’s accelerated bridge construction (ABC) program but also the largest bridge in the western hemisphere to be moved using self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs). Transportation officials from across the United States and