Thousands of tons of concrete shut down North Temple as Temple Square renovations continue

Derick Fox
·3 min read
10

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Renovations on Temple Square in Salt Lake City continue — this time with a massive concrete pour weighing tens of thousands of pounds, requiring a busy downtown street to be shut down.

Crews worked through the night on Thursday, March 28 into Friday the next day, driving back and forth with more than 60 trucks carrying concrete for the renovations at Temple Square for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Torrey Sanchez, a concrete mixer for Jack B Parson Ready Mix Concrete, told ABC4 the team was doing a “4,000-yard pour” all in one night.

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“Usually, on a daily basis, we’re doing 600 to 1,000 yards for one day for the whole city,” Sanchez said. “Tonight, to have this many yards going for one project is pretty big.”

According to Cemex, a building materials company, one cubic yard of concrete weighs about 4,000 pounds and takes about 45 80-pound bags of concrete mix. While that adds up to tens of thousands of pounds of fresh concrete for the Temple renovations, Sanchez said it will be worth it when it’s all finished.

“The Temple is going to look amazing. People aren’t going to recognize it after we’re done because they are doing a lot down there,” Sanchez said. “[There will be] a lot more structures than they had before. The marble and everything that’s been on the church has been taken off and they are putting new marble on it.”

A job this big, however, doesn’t come without its headaches. Work began around 10 p.m. on Thursday and Sanchez told ABC4 they estimate it to be a 12-hour-plus job. With the fleet of trucks going to and from the job site, crews had to shut down North Temple to facilitate the renovations.

The view of North Temple near 200 West in Salt Lake City where concrete mixing trucks parked to work on Temple Square renovations. (Courtesy: UDOT)
The view of North Temple near 200 West in Salt Lake City where concrete mixing trucks parked to work on Temple Square renovations. (Courtesy: UDOT)

Sanchez said there would be a mess of traffic by the time the Friday morning commute comes.

“There’s going to be a traffic jam by the time morning comes,” Sanchez said. “If we’re closing North Temple, there is a lot of traffic that goes up by the capitol and comes down State Street. It will probably be a mess.”

Temple Square is going on its fifth year of renovations and is not expected to be completed until 2026. The renovations will add several new buildings, provide infrastructure updates and address safety and earthquake concerns for the Temple itself.

Most recently, work was completed on the plaza near the Church Office Building as well as the Main Street Plaza.

Several plazas on the square’s east side reopened earlier this year, including the plaza near the Church Office Building as well as the Main Street Plaza. In January, Church officials said as the plazas begin to open, work on other areas of the Temple Square grounds will begin and close, including the Assembly Hall and its surrounding gardens.

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