What's New?

If you've hated I-15 the past few years, get ready to drive it in a different mood.

What's new? State of the art design and construction, the single biggest design and construction contract in the country today.

John Bourne/I-15 Reconstruction Project Director: ALL OF THE DESIGN THAT WE'VE USED AND INCORPORATED ON I-15 IS THE MOST CURRENT STANDARD THAT'S AVAILABLE.

Project Director John Bourne says the advanced traffic management system, or commuter link, may be the biggest innovation motorists will notice.

150 cameras scan the interstate.

Overhead message signs show motorists what's going on up the road, so they can change routes if there's a crash, construction or a traffic jam.

The pavement even knows what's going on.

John Bourne/I-15 Reconstruction Project Director: SENSORS IN OUR PAVEMENT THAT WILL ALERT OUR MAINTENANCE CREWS WHEN THE PAVEMENT STARTS TO FREEZE, SO WE CAN GET OUT AND ADDRESS THE PROBLEM BEFORE IT BECOMES A HAZARD.

The road knows when it's freezing before you do.

Other sensors will monitor the speed of traffic, and send the information to the management center.

Single Point Urban Interchanges, or SPUI's, are also new.

John Bourne/I-15 Reconstruction Project Director: ALL THE TRAFFIC MANEUVERS TAKE PLACE AT ONE POINT ON TOP OF THE STRUCTURE. SO, ONE SET OF SIGNALS HANDLES ALL OF THE MOVEMENTS ON THE ARTERIAL.

Nine of them replace the old diamond interchanges. UDOT says they're 30 percent more efficient.

At 106th South and 6th North they are on top of the freeway, all others are underneath the freeway.

Metered ramps with blinking stop lights should relieve congestion during rush hour.

Sensors pick up traffic on the freeway and set the timing on the ramps--when traffic is heavy, motorists will wait longer at the lights.

Engineers also learned important lessons from studying earthquake damage to freeways around the globe. They believe the bridges are the strongest possible.

John Bourne/I-15 Reconstruction Project Director: WE BELIEVE THAT WE CAN HAVE A 7.5 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE, SUSTAINING SOME DAMAGE, BUT, NONE OF THE BRIDGES WILL COLLAPSE.