Orange Cones, (Cont'd) June 24, 2007 NICK SHORT/Standard-Examiner Construction workers remove a steel support beam from Interstate 15's 12th Street overpass in Ogden. I-15 From 21 and three lanes wide in either direction from 12th Street to 2700 North, Neff said. Twenty-six overpasses will be replaced, he said, and six others rehabilitated. "It will be a big benefit to all of Weber County," Neff said. "A lot of outside businesses are looking at setting roots here, and the transportation system is important to them, especially those with trucking operations." One city almost salivating in anticipation of completion of the expansion is Marriott-Slaterville, in which both the 12th Street and 450 North interchanges lie. You wouldn't call it bracing, because they welcome the expected business growth after NOW, having already adjusted their planning documents and master plan in anticipation. "Unlike most cities in Utah, our main street (12th Street) runs east and west, not north and south," said Bill Morris, city administrator for the town of roughly 1,500 people. "So spending $20 million or so on the 12th Street interchange gives better access to our central business district." Morris feels NOW has already encouraged new development in his boyhood home. "Twelfth Street is a straight shot up to the ski resorts," he said, and one developer is already planning a 5-acre parking- and storage-lot business in the area of 800 West on 12th Street so those hitting the slopes can park their boats, trailers and so on. That and at least three other projects under way began there or slightly to the west about the same time NOW began. Those projects include Intermountain Farmers Association, moving from its Wall Avenue location in Ogden, Morris said. "IFA's market base is our kind of residential area rural," he said. He expects the city will have to widen the city feeder streets to it once the 450 North interchange is finished. Those cloverleaf ramps at the 12th Street exchange will soon be history, to be replaced by the diamond-style exchange. "The 12th Street loop ramps are outdated," Neff said. "You have a high accident rate on cloverleafs." "With those tight cloverleafs, you worry about ice," Morris said, "so safety issues have been a problem." Neff said almost all the work is done on the 31st Street interchange, where NOW began, with all the bridges replaced. "They're just working on the ramps now." Farr West Mayor Jimmie Papageorge is looking forward to this year's expected completion of the new 2700. North interchange that lies in Farr West's city limits. He said an 80-room hotel and three other businesses are waiting to begin construction once the interchange work is done. "We'll have two-lane off-and on-ramps," he said. "Right there on 2700 North is where all our commercial is now.... We've got residential growth. We want the commercial growth so we can continue to run the city on sales tax and business permits and licenses then we can keep property taxes down." He thinks the new interchange will have more benefit than the coming commuter rail stop planned for neighboring Pleasant View in a few years. "It'll help more than the train stop," Papageorge said. "People like to drive rather than get on a train, because when you get off, then you've got to find something else to get around in." 53