Salt Lake City Temple Replaces Roof Trusses

By Cass Jacoby, RCS Reporter.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seismically upgrades its roof.

Over a year and a half into the Salt Lake temple renovation project and the excavation on the temple's north side continues to go strong. The project is a virtual nonstop effort as tons of soil is being removed, including around the now exposed secant retaining wall interlocking rows of columns with buttresses drilled 85 feet deep.  

This summer, construction crews began the slow process of replacing the original trusses at the top of Salt Lake Temple in Utah. The roof trusses are considered a critical part of the structure, essentially tying the roof and the temple together with its foundation.  

According to a superintendent with Jacobsen Construction Company, Josh Fajardo, this process helps stiffen the building stone, reinforce the attic and upgrade the foundation. 

"The roof structure is so critical for this project," he told KSL. "You have all the historic finishes inside the building that you're trying to preserve. And starting from the top down, you need to have that good support and protection." 

A careful and methodical choreography is required to drop the new 90-foot, 35,000-pound trusses in place. The new structures are replacing the old trusses that were installed in the 1800s and have been there since before the temple was dedicated.  

The historic finishes inside make for quite the challenge in this process. In typical construction, the trusses are done all at once, but to ensure only a portion of the roof was exposed to protect historic finishes inside the sacred structure, the trusses on this renovation need to be installed one at a time.  

For a brief moment, the new truss was right next to the century-old one, an incredible statement on the history of this place and the magnificence of the building. 

"The challenges [to build this temple] we have don't compare to what they had," says Josh, marveling at this feat in architecture. "Nowadays, we have these awesome cranes that make it so much easier." 

The temple is schedules to reopen in 2024, with a finished project that promises to be spectacular.  

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Photo credit: KSL