Sugar House construction at ‘one of the hardest points’ — Here’s what’s coming this winter

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Construction crews are beginning to lay asphalt on 2100 South in the Sugar House neighborhood of Salt Lake City after a tough year of construction for local businesses.

Local officials say the two-year project is likely at its apex, and while there is still a year to go, the construction should slowly get easier to live with from here.

Construction timeline

City Engineer Mark Stephens told ABC4.com that construction crews are “making good progress” and are currently on track to finish by late fall of 2025.

A lot of progress on the road is not easily noticeable to the general public. However, last week crews began paving the north side of 2100 South between 1100 East and 1300 East, which Stephens said is a more visible development.

In October, crews will pave the south side of the road between the same streets. Stephens said the pavement “will provide much freer flow for multiple modes of traffic.”

While construction is still scheduled for another year, traffic in the area is expected to flow much more freely through the winter months, with minimal active construction until February or March of next year. As for the area between 700 East and 1100 East, one lane in each direction will be open until the spring.

Erika Wiggins, co-chair of the Sugar House Chamber of Commerce, said the dirt on the road can be discouraging for those entering the area, and the new pavement is “uplifting to see” after a hard year of construction for local businesses.

“In addition to the disruption to traffic flow, there’s a pretty huge mess and dust component to all of this, and there’s the visual impact that it has,” Wiggins said. “For whatever it’s worth, it is a great sign of progress to see pavement going down.”

Why is the project taking so long?

Voters voted for a general obligation bond in 2018, which is funding the 2100 S Reconstruction Project. Stephens called it a “transformer project” which means it will transform the road to better accommodate vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians in the area.

Stephens said the project will take two years to complete because they are working with public utilities to make several upgrades at once, such as improving water and sewer lines, as well as the surface-level transformations. He said this helps increase efficiency with tax dollars and minimizes the “impacts to the community, to the businesses, to the residences.”

“We make sure that we can combine projects to minimize the long-lasting impacts that would otherwise take place if we did project after project,” he said.

The impact on businesses

Even with the attempts to minimize the impact on the area, Wiggins said the construction has been “really, really rough for the businesses,” with several permanently closing their doors.

SugarHouse Barbecue, Locker Room, and Pizza Volta are among the shops that went out of business in the past year, and while every closure includes several contributing factors, Wiggins said the construction “sure as heck accelerated things.”

Even the most popular businesses in the area — such as Sugar House Coffee — are having a hard time as people avoid the area due to the extensive construction, according to Wiggins.

“It’s especially because it’s a multi-year project and not that far off of the tails of the pandemic,” she said. “They already had their reserves tapped, and then to have this, it’s been really hard.”

Wiggins said the city provided grants to the businesses to help with marketing and the Sugar House Chamber of Commerce hosted events and campaigned to entice people to shop in the area, but to little avail.

“We have tried multiple ways to entice the public to come down during construction without success, unfortunately,” Wiggins said. “At this point, our best option is to throw some really big campaigns out as soon as it’s done and get people back into the area.”

Will it get better?

This year, construction on 1100 E will wrap up, which Wiggins said should help traffic flow at the main intersection at 1100 E and 2100 E.

“I think right now we’re really at that apex [as] two major thoroughfares in Sugar House are actively under construction right now. That wasn’t the case last year, and it won’t be that way next year,” she said. “We are at one of the hardest points right now.”

Wiggins said businesses in Sugar House need support “now more than ever” to get through this next year of construction. Both Stephens and Wiggins emphasized that the stores and roads are open and accessible, despite the inconvenience.

“It’s always important to shop local, but right now, what you can do will make a huge difference to these businesses which are employing local residents,” Wiggins said. “Take an extra five minutes to support some businesses where your dollar will make a huge impact right now.”

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.