A nearly yearlong project to reconstruct a 65-year-old bridge in Provo is set to begin in early November.
The city announced plans in April 2024 to demolish and rebuild the bridge, which sits over the Provo River and an adjacent trail, located at the intersection of 800 N. 850 West.
The existing bridge was built in 1960; city leaders and engineers say it’s coming to the end of its lifespan, and they feel the time has come to address its structural deficiencies.
Aside from the aging infrastructure, Provo city says the 820 North bridge is also unsafe for drivers and pedestrians traveling across it.
“There were several parts of the bridge that were in disrepair; there were also, kind of, issues with sight distance,” said Joseph Gandy, public information officer for Provo Public Works.
Safety concerns about the site were elevated after Isabelle Parr, a student of Utah Valley University, was killed in a hit-and-run incident near the intersection, while she was out jogging on the evening of Dec. 1, 2022.
Despite numerous efforts to locate the driver, nearly three years later, Provo police said no one was ever taken into custody.
But replacing the bridge was on the city’s radar before tragedy struck, as it had secured more than $10 million in grant funding from the Mountainland Associations of Governments toward the rebuild.
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Portions of the bridge are crumbling and in disrepair, in addition to other safety risks such as narrow sidewalks and deficient guardrails, which, according to the FAQ section on the project’s website, contribute to the bridge’s hazardous conditions.
The project calls for rebuilding and widening the bridge to meet modern current active transportation standards.
Gandy said the new configuration will be designed to safely accommodate all commuters, regardless if they’re on wheels or on foot.
“The wider bridge will have wider sidewalks — it’ll have bike lanes to fit all those different modes of transportation to keep everyone safe and comfortable on that bridge,” he told KSL.com.
Gandy said construction is anticipated to start on or around Nov. 5, beginning with a demolition of the bridge, followed by a hard closure of the road roughly a week later.
“It’s going to close off the entire bridge,” he said. “People won’t be able to go through on 820 North; we’ve got detour routes in place to have traffic go down to 500 North.”
A section of the Provo River Trail at the 820 North crossing will also be closed, with detours in place for crews to make improvements to the pavement under the bridge to make it smoother and safer, Gandy noted.
Construction and the subsequent road closure are expected to last approximately nine months.
Gandy said the project is anticipated to be completed by mid-June of 2026.
In the meantime, residents who may have concerns about impacts of the construction or other questions related to the 820 North bridge rebuild are invited to a “Meet the Contractor” open house on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at the Provo Recreation Center from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
“We’ll provide information on the timeline of the project, those detour routes, and (other) information at that Tuesday meeting,” Gandy said.
Additional information on the project is available at provoriverbridge.com.