SANDY — Neighbors raised concerns Wednesday evening as project managers from the Utah Department of Transportation held a public hearing on a plan to move a State Street traffic light.
Under the plan, crews would move the traffic light from a four-way intersection at 8720 South — which is also known in the area as historic Main Street — to a three-way or ‘T’ intersection less than a block to the north at 8680 South.
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Workers would also install a new raised median from 8640 South to 8660 South, according to UDOT Project Manager Dillon Richens.
“Originally, the project was funded to upgrade the signal hardware,” Richens explained during an interview with KSL-TV.
Richens said during a meeting with Sandy City and other stakeholders, the city suggested analyzing a potential move to 8680 South.
“It popped up, ‘hey, what if — crazy idea — what if we move it north just one block,’ right,” he said. “At the time, we looked at it and we were concerned with the initial looking at it. It was a little bit of a different take than we would typically do, but when we zoomed out, we realized that it connected our roads better.”
According to UDOT, the analysis also showed the 8680 South option would be safer.
“The goal is to essentially have it be safer, have cars staying on the roads that are more designed for that volume rather than cutting into these residential areas,” Richens said.
He added that UDOT hopes to have the project completed by late 2026.
Neighbors arrived at the public hearing with numerous questions and plenty of pushback — including on issues like preserving historic Main Street and focusing on other projects first.
“I think that should be a priority to fix the curb and gutter and finalize State Street,” said neighbor Marlon Lentz.
Mike Erekson, who owns an insurance business on State Street close to the planned traffic signal, said multiple businesses would be negatively impacted by the change.
“It’s beyond me how the voice of the people just gets silenced when it’s somebody else’s pockets getting lined,” Erekson said. “I’d love to have my representatives actually represent me and represent the businesses and the public that are all out here not happy about this change, and can’t make any sense of it either way to say why we’re moving and shifting everything to the north and causing havoc on a street that doesn’t need to have it happen.”
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