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Jed Boal ReportingUS Highway 6 has a reputation as one of Utah's deadliest roads. A new study recommends highway officials expand the entire highway to four lanes to improve safety, but such a fix is not simple.
It's not simple because a reconstruction project this size costs more than one-Billion dollars, and the cost continues to rise. UDOT wants to expand Highway 6, it's a priority, but finding the federal funding is the elusive key.
Most Utahns who drive US Highway 6 from Spanish Fork to I-70 near Green River know its reputation for fatal crashes and reckless and aggressive driving. To improve safety and transportation, a four-year environmental study of the entire corridor recommends two lanes in each direction for most of the 128-mile highway. The Federal Highway Administration issued a record of decision that lets UDOT take the next step.
Nile Easton, UDOT: "Next step is identifying the funding, so we're going to be working closely with the transportation commission with legislators to come up with to make the fixes identified in the study."
During the last seven years UDOT spent around 110-million dollars on US 6. In the next few years it will spend another 50-million. So UDOT still wants to fix what it can, when it can, adding passing lanes and rumble strips.
The study cited "higher than expected accident rates," but the Department of Transportation says more than half of all traffic fatalities in the state occur on four-lane highways divided by medians like I-15 and I-80.
Nile Easton: "There's no quick fix to eliminate all fatalities. It will still come down to drivers making correct decisions, even if it is a divided highway."
A divided highway would help eliminate some cross-over crashes, which accounted for eight of last year's 13 fatalities. Regardless, UDOT calls driver responsibility the number one fix.
The Billion dollar project is a priority, but it's also among the many projects that total 16 billion dollars of non-funded transportation needs in Utah for the next 20 to 30 years.
