Route

Interstate 215 is Utah's only three-digit interstate route, forming a 270° near-loop around Salt Lake City. Although it does not form a complete circle, it is generally referred to as the "Belt Route". Radio and TV traffic reporters further divide the route, using "Westside Belt Route" or "Eastside Belt Route" to distinguish which portion of the loop is being referenced with I-15 serving as the axis.

Route History

When the route was first under development in the 1960s, the SE quadrant of the loop, that portion now called the Eastside Belt Route, running from the I-15 south junciton in Murray to I-80 at the mouth of Parleys Canyon, was originally scheduled to be designated I-415. Several maps from the mid-1960s show this numbering for the proposed freeway. However, the completed feeeway was never signed as I-415; the entire loop has always been designated I-215.

The route was built in sections over a twenty year period. The southwestern leg, from 35th South to I-15 in Murray was opened around 1968. By the mid 1980s, there were three distinct discontinuous sections of the belt route. Working clockwise starting at the eastern I-80 junction (milepost zero):

• From the Parleys Canyon interchange to about 45th South
• from State Street in Murray to 21st South in West Valley
• and, from the airport to I-15 in North Salt Lake.

Route Definition in Utah Code

Control Points

"Control points" is the term highway engineers use to describe the destinations placed on a highway's signage to help guide drivers. They may be end points or intermediate towns. Sometimes control points can be cities not even located on the highway, but the highway in question is used to reach the highway the does pass through the city. For drivers who may not know that San Francisco is west, but do remember that they have to go through Reno to get there, control points are invaluable.

Until early 1997, I-215 had no control destinations; travellers simply had to rely on the ever-changing north/south/east/west directionals. That changed when I-15 was rebuilt in the last part of the 1990s when I-215 became the preferred alternate for road closures associated with the I-15 rebuild project. As that freeway was squeezed down to four lanes, and various interchanges and ramps with I-80 were closed for six to twelve months each, I-215 became the way to get through and around Salt Lake City during the 4 1/2 year-long project.

To help guide motorists during that phase, UDOT and Wasatch Constructors, the contortium of contractors responsible for the I-15 rebuild, added distant control cities found along I-15 and I-80 as control points to the I-215 signage.

For counter-clockwise traffic: Beginning at I-15 southbound near exit 318, the controls for I-215 are "SL Int'l Airport", and Reno. Further south, at the westside junction with I-80, the exit from eastbound I-80 to southbound I-215 lists Provo and Cheyenne as control points. Then, down at the I-15 junction on the south end, the control points for traffic continuing on I-215 are "Cheyenne and SKI AREAS."

Speed Limits

Interstate 215, being an urban interstate, is posted at 65 mph for the entire length of the route.

Business Loops

Lanes

I-215 was built with three lanes in each direction from the eastside I-80 junction all the way around to 2200 North at exit 25. For the final four-mile segment, from 2200 North to I-15 in North Salt Lake, it has two lanes in each direction. The I-15 contractor has added an additional lane of traffic to the SW quadrant of I-215, between I-15 on the south end and the western junction with I-80, a distance of ten miles. No bridge widening or major repaving was done to accommodate this; the road was simply restriped to squeeze four lanes into a place where three had been before. Finally, after at least one fatal accident where a woman was hit from behind after stopping in the left lane, UDOT spent the summer of 1998 adding a new left hand shoulder. The overpasses, however, still have not been widened.

HOV lanes

There are no HOV lanes on any road in Utah. HOV lanes are included in the design plans for the I-15 reconstruction. They will open in fall 2001 along I-15 in Salt Lake County.

Ramp Meters

There are no ramp meters on any entrance to I-215.

Exit Numbering

Exits are numbered according to the next milepost, and the mileposts are scaled in miles (as opposed to kilometers). The milepost origin is on the east side at the junction with eastbound I-80. I make this distinction because I-215 begins by closely paralleling I-80 for nearly a mile. Eastbound I-80 to southbound I-215 is at exit 129A while westbound I-80 uses exit 130. At the point where westbound I-80 traffic enters I-215, I-215 is already to milepost 2. The directions on that first stretch are even more mysterious. Counter-clockwise traffic is on WEST I-215 while clockwise traffic is on SOUTH I-215.

Counties

Nearly all of I-215 is in Salt Lake County. The northernmost leg, from milepost 27 to the end is in Davis County.

Area Code

Links