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SALT LAKE CITY — A recently discovered old map detailed previous plans for a pair of highways to run through Salt Lake City.
The plan was for one highway to run near the foothills above Salt Lake City and for the other to run though downtown Salt Lake near the Capitol through Memory Grove. And according to resident, Sydney Fonnesbeck, these roads nearly happened.
"It was to come right here and then go downtown from there," Fonnesbeck said. "There's a bridge that actually spans Memory Grove. And the picture has cars just whipping around the whole area."
In 1965, the Salt Lake Area Transportation Study mapped out an East Valley Freeway linking with I-15.
"There was an attitude in the city that we had throwaway neighborhoods, and they were in the lower avenues and central city," Fonnesbeck said. "They intended them for demolition."
Recently, transportation advocate Roger Borgenicht found the old study. It maps a proposed freeway from Van Winkle, up the 13th east corridor, cutting between 9th and 9th and Trolley Square, with a bridge over City Creek and a tunnel under Capitol Hill.
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The design was created to meet traffic demands, the report said.
"Without this East Valley freeway, without this facility, future travel plans in this corridor could not effectively be met," Borgenicht said.
Another proposed roadway that was discovered was an Ensign Peak Parkway, which would have linked Bountiful through the foothills above the University of Utah to the zoo.
"Insane," Borgenicht said. "I can't imagine how a transportation engineer could even have drawn this back in 1965."
Borgenicht estimates that thousands of homes, many historic, would have been demolished. By 1969, the idea had died.
"The whole preservation movement towards innercity neighborhoods really got going and I believe that's what stopped this freeway plan," he said.
With Utah's significant population growth, many have wondered if there is a possibility that roadway plans like these could be implemented. But, transportation experts say it's unlikely, given that it would likely spark very strong public opposition.
