Different kind of bridge over I-15 carries only concrete

A different kind of bridge has appeared over Interstate 15 at the Point of the Mountain. It won’t carry cars or trucks, just liquid concrete to where lanes are being rebuilt between current traffic lanes.

“It’s a temporary bridge structure that’s meant to carry a conveyor belt across mainline I-15” from an adjacent concrete plant at a sand and gravel pit, explained Tim Rose, director of “The Point” project for the Utah Department of Transportation.

Beginning Tuesday, it started carrying “concrete across I-15 to the middle of the freeway, where it is dumped into a hopper. Trucks pick it up” and take it to construction points, he said.

Without the bridge — because of heavy truck traffic in the area with its several sand and gravel pits and concrete plants — “we can’t get our trucks safely in the work zone during the day. So it would be strictly nighttime work,” Rose said.

With the bridge, “It allows us basically to run 24/7. This will allow them to work all day, double shifts.”

Rose said using the bridge also should help air quality. “It will eliminate an estimated 15,000 truckloads” maneuvering around local roads and the freeway.