Roy drivers who have spent the past three years navigating cones, detours, and shifting lane patterns near I-15 and 5600 South can finally exhale. The Utah Department of Transportation announced completion of the $265 million interchange project on Monday, replacing the aging interchange with a Single-Point Urban Interchange designed to keep pace with a corridor that carries about 100,000 vehicles a day.
The project, first detailed by Construction Equipment Guide, was fully funded by UDOT to modernize aging infrastructure and expand capacity along State Route 97, the official designation for 5600 South. Crews widened the roadway from three to five lanes between I-15 and State Route 108 at 3500 West, a stretch that crosses through both Roy and Riverdale in Weber County, according to the Standard-Examiner. As KUTV reports, construction crews also widened 5600 South specifically between I-15 and 2500 West as part of the broader overhaul.
Why the Old Interchange Had to Go
UDOT Region One Director Nathan Peterson said the improvements will help roads keep pace with continued growth and will create better connections for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists, according to KUTV's report. The new interchange design lets opposing left turns move simultaneously without crossing paths, and it connects I-15 ramp traffic and 5600 South at a single traffic signal instead of the tangle of signals the old setup required.
The urgency behind the rebuild wasn't hypothetical. A UDOT Environmental Assessment study, cited by Construction Equipment Guide, projected that without major corridor upgrades, most primary intersections along 5600 South — including 3100 West, 2700 West, 2200 West, 1900 West, and Freeway Park Drive — would operate at failing service conditions during peak commute hours by 2050. High congestion along the corridor had already been driving elevated crash rates and severe delays, the outlet noted.
Built Faster, Built for the Base
Sand Ridge Constructors — a joint venture between Granite Construction and W.W. Clyde — built the interchange using a Progressive Design-Build method, according to the Standard-Examiner's report from 2023. That approach brought contractors into the design process earlier than a traditional design-build contract would, shaving up to a year off the construction timeline.
5600 South also functions as a primary access route to Hill Air Force Base's west gate, and the new Single-Point Urban Interchange design is meant to improve traffic movement and access between Roy, Riverdale, and the base. That military and commuter reliance on the corridor was significant enough that UDOT deployed a temporary three-month “Thru-U” U-turn traffic pattern at 1900 West during summer 2025, restricting left turns on 5600 South while crews finished bridge deck construction, per udot.gov.
New Crossings for Roy's Schoolkids
Safety upgrades for pedestrians were built into the project alongside the roadway work. Construction crews added a pedestrian bridge near Roy Elementary and Roy Junior High schools, and UDOT installed upgraded HAWK pedestrian signals at 2100 West and 2200 West to protect students crossing 5600 South, according to udot.gov. Those High-Intensity Activated Crosswalk signals halt vehicle traffic whenever a pedestrian activates them, giving kids a safer path across the busy arterial.
Crews also installed six raised medians across key intersections along 5600 South, 1900 West, and 3500 West, eliminating hazardous turn conflict points near the interchange and cutting off unsafe mid-block left turns, per the same UDOT account. Biking and walking paths were added along 5600 South as well, rounding out a package UDOT says will create better multimodal connections for the neighborhood. UDOT and construction crews plan to mark the milestone at Roy Elementary's back-to-school night on Thursday, where they'll hand out free ice cream to the community.
Part of a Bigger Statewide Push
The Roy interchange's completion lands squarely inside UDOT's 2026 construction season, which spans 176 active and new projects statewide with a combined budget exceeding $2.8 billion — more than $1 billion above 2025's program, according to KSL TV. UDOT is already moving on to the next project in the sequence: a $385 million initiative building a new I-15 interchange and widening 1800 North in neighboring Clinton and Sunset, expected to run through 2027 and eventually accommodate a future dedicated gate for Hill Air Force Base, per udot.gov.
The interchange work also arrives amid a broader statewide safety push. Utah recorded 264 traffic fatalities in 2025, down from 277 the year before and the state's lowest annual death toll since 2019, a trend Hoodline previously reported that transportation officials link to targeted corridor redesigns and enforcement. For Roy commuters, the finished interchange marks the end of three years of construction and the start of a corridor built with that kind of growth and safety math in mind.
