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Herriman Journal

How Bangerter construction is impacting local businesses

Mar 30, 2021 10:08AM ● By Justin Adams

Construction on the intersection of 12600 South and Bangerter Highway has significantly impacted businesses in the area.

By Justin Adams | [email protected]

A Utah Department of Transportation project to build an overpass for Bangerter Highway over 12600 South has impacted many commuters in the southwest part of the valley. But it has also had a substantial impact on businesses located near the project.

To accommodate the construction, it is no longer possible to cross Bangerter Highway going east–west. Those traveling north–south along Bangerter are also limited to exiting onto 12600 South in one direction. This has made it more inconvenient for people to access the many businesses in the area.

The City Journals asked Herriman residents in a Facebook poll if they had visited businesses in the area more or less since construction began. Out of 216 respondents, 81% said they have avoided the area more than usual, compared to 16% who said they haven’t changed how often they solicit businesses in the area.

An informal door-to-door survey of local businesses found that the impact has been unevenly distributed.

Restaurants with robust delivery options, like Tenney’s Pizza and Jimmy John’s, have fared a little better.

“It has gone down considerably the last few weeks, but honestly it hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be,” said Jimmy John’s franchise owner Tristen Coates.  

Alex Rees, a manager for Tenney’s Pizza, estimated that it has lost 10% to 15% its their business since construction started.

On the west side of Bangerter, The Coffee Shop manager Benjamin Lyon said it has lost about half of its business. 

“We’ve had to adjust our staffing,” he said. “That’s been hard on all our baristas.”

Lyon also said that the impacts of the construction and road closure has been “much worse” than the impact of all the safety protocols imposed over the last year due to COVID-19. Many business owners said they felt out of the loop when it came to knowing when the road closure would be taking place.

“Several months ago, someone came in and said they were going to close the road but didn’t go into much detail,” said Chris Neel, a manager for Five Guys. “They didn’t know exactly when it was happening. Then someone came in the day before it closed to tell us it was happening.”

Alyssa Ward, owner of the Roxberry Smoothies location, said she received most of the information about the project’s progression from construction workers who came in for a smoothie. 

While most business owners the City Journals talked to recalled a Riverton City employee communicating with them about the project, Riverton City Communications Director Casey Saxton said that UDOT would have been the party responsible for conveying information to local businesses.

“Because this is a UDOT project, they are responsible for communicating with all of the stakeholders in the area,” he said. “I believe they did make efforts to communicate with as many of the businesses as possible.” 

Still, Riverton City officials have done what they could to help out the impacted businesses.

“We have encouraged people to support impacted businesses in several ways,” Saxton said. “We created a custom graphic showing where specific businesses are located and have posted that on social media, on our website and sent out the information in an email to our residents. It was also available via a link sent out to residents in a text message. Collectively, our efforts have resulted in over 41,000 digital views.” 








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