By Daniel Smith | [email protected]

Drive through Sugar House lately and you have no doubt encountered a lot of roadwork. With increased building construction, the city has plans to ensure that the infrastructure is updated to keep in step with the increased traffic and population.  

One such infrastructural facelift is taking place on the stretch of Highland Drive which runs in front of the Patagonia Outlet store (2292 S. Highland Drive) and Sugar House’s DABC Utah State Liquor Store (1154 S. Ashton Ave.). 

As of mid-April, a deep chasm had been dug into the side of the road in order to redirect a pipe channeling canal water which flows into Sugar House from the mouth of Parley’s Canyon. Utah Department of Public Utilities engineering inspectors Cory Lawrence and Ben Oyler explained that the project may take longer than expected. Construction workers had run into lateral sewer lines and gas lines, which they were forced to work around.

They said that they hoped to be done installing the pipe within the next two weeks.

Several weeks of cleanup and curbing will follow upon the installation of the pipe. This process is projected to be finished by the end of May. However, both inspectors noted that this is only a loose prediction and that it could take longer. 

Generally, it is easy to stick to a schedule with this sort of project. In light of recent concrete shortages, however, it has become difficult to say exactly when the work will be finished. “Usually, you can call and say, ‘I need this much concrete by tomorrow,’” said Oyler, and have the concrete delivered on schedule. That has not been the case recently, sometimes taking up to several weeks to receive an order of concrete.

Once the canal water is rechanneled and the curbing finished, a new project will immediately begin just a few blocks north. An apartment building is under construction, and part of the road needs to be torn up in order to install water lines for the structure.

And things won’t end there. Oyler and Lawrence said that Sugar House’s master plan involves redoing most of Highland Drive (1100 East). The roads in front of Central Book Exchange at 2017 South and the Sugar House Soup Kitchen at 2012 South will be torn up and redone, and the roadwork will also migrate farther south, past the state liquor store.

Sugar House looks likely to continue its pattern of growth over the next couple of years. Consequently, those who live, work or visit the area will be living with the constant renovations and construction.