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SALT LAKE CITY — A House panel endorsed a proposal Wednesday that would name a section of I-15 after late Speaker Becky Lockhart.
Lockhart, the first woman to serve as Utah House speaker, died at age 46 on Jan. 17 from an unrecoverable and extremely rare neurodegenerative brain disease.
Rep. Keven Stratton, R-Orem, is sponsoring HB385 to honor and recognize Lockhart as instrumental in rebuilding I-15 from Lehi to Santaquin.
“This was really a cutting-edge, remarkable project that came in significantly under budget and ahead of time using some wonderful innovation, and the late Speaker Lockhart was one of the key cogs in the wheel in bringing it about,” Stratton said.
The bill would designate that stretch of the previously named Veterans Memorial Highway stretch as the Rebecca D. Lockhart section of the Veterans Memorial Highway.
Multiple lawmakers spoke in favor of the proposal, including Rep. Rich Cunningham, R-South Jordan, who said Lockhart “was always going 100 mph.” He joked that the Legislature should also raise speed limit of that section of the highway to 100 mph.
The House committee unanimously passed the proposal, sending it to the House floor for consideration.
— Katie McKellar
