Temple Square Renovation Update: January 2025

The Salt Lake Temple renovation project recently hit another milestone with the completion of vertical coring. This monumental three-year process (the most extensive single activity on-site to date) entailed drilling 46 holes through its granite-like (quartz monzonite) stone walls, from the tops of each corner of its six towers to the new upper foundations over which the sacred structure now rests.

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Hollow, diamond-edged drill bits were attached to hollow drill rods five feet long and about two and a half inches in diameter. The drill rods were threaded and connected to form what are called drill strings.  

Through innovative engineering, the holes were kept within a parameter of three-eighths of an inch of the entire average cored depth of 150 feet. Four drills were placed by crane at the top of the temple towers to perform this feat. This process cut more than two and half miles of stone cores. 

The holes were reamed and now house bundles of post-tension cables, part of the temple’s seismic upgrade base isolation system. The steel cables are attached to reinforced steel structures in the towers and roof, threaded through the temple exterior walls and attached to its new foundation, then tightened to half a million pounds. The tension compresses the historic structure to withstand high-magnitude earthquakes.   

Watch a video of this innovative engineering process performed from the towers of the temple below.  

The seismic work will continue through the first quarter with continued tensioning of seismic systems in the historic temple. In this quarter, most of the underground reinforced concrete structures for the addition around the sacred structure will be completed. 

Visitors may now see a new statue installed on Temple Square. The Come, Follow Me statue, located north of the Tabernacle, now joins the First Vision statue, which was added in November 2024. Created by Ben Hammond, the two personages with Christ are His disciples of whom He is calling to abandon their pursuits as fishermen and follow Him. 

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More sculptures depicting the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and the restored gospel will be placed around Temple Square in 2025 and 2026. 

Finish work is underway in the basement level of the expanded north addition. 

Crews are also beginning to wrap up construction in the two baptistries, baptistry chapel, celestial rooms and sealing rooms. The underground addition to the temple has an additional 100,000 square feet. The temple will have two baptistries instead of one and 22 sealing rooms (where marriages occur), up from 13. It will also have five instruction rooms with increased seating space. 

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At the west entry pavilion on North Temple Street, stone cladding work is being installed.

Much of Temple Square is open to the public. Patrons can view the construction progress on the Salt Lake Temple from the Main Street Plaza and Conference Center. Surrounding buildings on Temple Square remain open such as the Conference Center, Church History Museum, Tabernacle, Church History Library and Family Search Library. 

For more information on building hours, visit TempleSquare.org.