The location of an overnight standoff with police made Tuesday's commute a miserable experience for thousands of motorists.
Northbound I-15 was closed through the night and morning between 4500 South and 600 North and was reopened about 10 a.m.George Dougherty, an FBI special agent, said the freeway would be closed "as long as we feel there may be a threat" to public safety.
The standoff ended about 6:30 a.m. with the arrest of Nick Anthony Paul, but a special violent crimes task force was still clearing the scene and collecting evidence later Tuesday.
The freeway already was closed between 4500 South and 2100 South at 10 p.m. Monday for a routine work shift on the I-15 reconstruction project.
But about an hour later, when members of the task force began exchanging gunfire with unknown suspects just off I-15 near 1300 South, the Utah Highway Patrol asked that the interstate be closed between 2100 South and 600 North as well.
Officers were concerned that stray bullets could endanger I-15 motorists. And some officers were stationed on the freeway itself to make sure suspects did not attempt to flee up the embankment.
Under normal circumstances, Wasatch Constructors would have reopened the freeway between 4500 South and 2100 South at 6 a.m. But the I-15 contractor and the Utah Department of Transportation were asked to keep the freeway closed at 4500 South.
At press time Tuesday, UHP spokesman Verdi White II said he had been unable to determine exactly why the highway patrol asked that the closure be maintained at 4500 South.
But White said it appears there was concern that, should traffic be allowed to continue on I-15 as far as 2100 South, traffic congestion might have interfered with emergency vehicles, should they be needed. Clearly, however, a rush-hour closure of I-15 was going to cause traffic backups somewhere. In this case, 4500 South took the brunt of it.
According to Metro Traffic, which supplies road-condition reports to the broadcast media, morning commuters faced a 25-minute average delay on northbound I-15 between 5300 South and 4500 South. The problem was heightened by drivers who tried to back down the 5300 South onramp to escape the delay.
The highway patrol elected not to station traffic-control officers in the intersections on 4500 South partly because traffic was not backed up through intersections and because that might have created a bottleneck at State Street, White said.
State Street itself was flowing smoothly during the rush hour, and both I-215 and the Bangerter Highway were moving at near-normal paces, according to several reports.
Murray police officers were not called in to help with the traffic flow on 4500 South.
Deseret News staff writers Lynn Arave and Jennifer Dobner contributed to this report.