LAYTON — Cooler weather led to an unusual safety concern Wednesday along sections of I-15 in Davis and Weber counties.
Crews were laying down a micro-surface over and around bridges from Layton to Ogden, but colder-than-expected temperatures and higher-than-expected moisture levels caused the surface to not take properly, said Utah Department of Transportation region spokesman Vic Saunders.
As a result, Saunders said, chunks of the surface came up, and commuters were left to navigate over a road that didn’t have the necessary traction.
“It’s causing a little bit of a mess and we’re worried about the safety of travelers like motorcyclists and things like this,” Saunders said Wednesday morning.
Crews had most of the debris cleared within hours, Saunders said, but workers continued to monitor the area throughout the day.
“It’s just one of those things at this time of the year as we get to the end of the construction season, we never know what the temperatures will be. Things become really temperature-sensitive," he said. "This is one where after the project started, the temperatures went down and the humidity came up, and that was not good for this particular product.”
Temperatures were expected to dip into the 50s Thursday with the arrival of rain. Saunders said that could potentially pose additional challenges, such as with a Cache County road project where concrete is currently being laid.
Like every year, crews are trying to get their weather-sensitive work done by mid-October, he said.