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[US 89]

The Parleys Canyon Interchange in Salt Lake City between I-80, I-215, Foothill Drive, and Parleys Way may finally get a redesign, according to UDOT's draft EIS released last month. Aside from a recent pavement and re-signing project, this interchange is essentially unchanged from when it was built in the mid-1960s and has lots of tight curves, short merges, and even an undivided ramp connecting northbound 215 to eastbound 80 and vice versa.

According to the alternatives analysis, the preferred alternative would:

• Widen I-80 to three lanes each direction through the interchange
• Divide the substandard SE ramp and widen it to 2 lanes each direction
• Remove the existing bottleneck on I-215 south where it currently narrows to one lane before the Foothill merge
• Shift the I-80/215 junction east and remove the left merge from 215 to 80 westbound
• Add slip ramps/braided ramps to I-215 to reduce weaving between the 3300 South and I-80 exits
• Eliminate the loop ramp from 80 eastbound to Foothill and relocate it to split from 80 between 23rd East and 215, following the north side of I-80 and merging directly into the Foothill ramp from westbound 80

[BigManFromAFRICA88]

The Parleys Canyon Interchange in Salt Lake City between I-80, I-215, Foothill Drive, and Parleys Way may finally get a redesign, according to UDOT's draft EIS released last month. Aside from a recent pavement and re-signing project, this interchange is essentially unchanged from when it was built in the mid-1960s and has lots of tight curves, short merges, and even an undivided ramp connecting northbound 215 to eastbound 80 and vice versa.

According to the alternatives analysis, the preferred alternative would:

• Widen I-80 to three lanes each direction through the interchange
• Divide the substandard SE ramp and widen it to 2 lanes each direction
• Remove the existing bottleneck on I-215 south where it currently narrows to one lane before the Foothill merge
• Shift the I-80/215 junction east and remove the left merge from 215 to 80 westbound
• Add slip ramps/braided ramps to I-215 to reduce weaving between the 3300 South and I-80 exits
• Eliminate the loop ramp from 80 eastbound to Foothill and relocate it to split from 80 between 23rd East and 215, following the north side of I-80 and merging directly into the Foothill ramp from westbound 80

Lowkey miss the old alternatives with the conversion to a stack but again the terrain for the interchange is absolutely fucked so sticking to Alt B won't hurt. I kind of like Alt A better but they're the ones running the simulations.

However, I would say, if this doesn't include some study of widening Foothill to 6 lanes from 23rd to the interchange this is still gonna be a shit show every rush hour. And on further pipedream levels of imagination, if there were any stretch of highway in the Salt Lake Valley that could use commuter/express lanes a la SR 92, it would be Foothill up to at least Sunnyside or the U of U entrances, so I'd look into that somehow too.