Thousands of motorists drive University Parkway in Orem every day and most of them know there's something terribly wrong with the intersection at Sandhill Road.

Scott Andrus, a Region 3 West District engineer with the Utah Department of Transportation, said the parkway's road surface between Geneva Road and the top of hill to the east is 6-7 years old. It was due to be resurfaced this summer, and UDOT is putting together a temporary fix until then.

UDOT officials began seeing problems with the intersection's surface, called a top-layer open-graded surface course, as early as December and January. Options included putting down a temporary overlay to slow the damage or using a rotor mill to remove the damaged asphalt, but cold temperatures and heavy snowfall thwarted that plan.

"Generally, in our life cycle, that's how long these are expected to last," Andrus said. "Because of the severe winter, this one failed a little faster than we expected it to."

In the last couple of months, he personally has received about 10 telephone calls from residents concerned about the condition of the intersection.

A UDOT University Parkway resurfacing project for the western portion of the road will soon be put out to bid to contractors. It will entail rotor milling and removing the existing asphalt, laying a super pave mix asphalt overlay and topping the surface with a three-quarter-inch micro polymer similar to a slurry seal for added durability, Andrus said.

The contract for the estimated $1-$2 million project should be awarded by April or May with construction beginning in early summer.

As a temporary solution, UDOT crews in coming Sundays will sweep the intersection and lay an asphalt mixture to reduce the jolt to motorists using the roadway. He said UDOT has posted signs in the vicinity to warn motorists about the rough road and recommends they slow down when entering the intersection.

"It won't be a paved-in type of surface, but it should smooth things out to get us through to when the project starts," he said.

Given that University Parkway is the prime gateway into the heart of the Orem/Provo metro area that includes two major universities, the road fix is coming none too soon.

According to the most recent data, from a 2006 UDOT study, an average of 46,385 vehicles pass through the University Parkway and Sandhill Road intersection on a daily basis, said Doug Bassett, a UDOT Region 3 traffic engineer.

He said the University Parkway exit off Interstate 15 is probably the busiest freeway interchange in Utah County, and that the Parkway/Sandhill Road intersection is most likely in the top 10 of the county's most-used intersections.