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Amanda Butterfield reportingUtah Transit Authority (UTA) crews have begun construction on their new West Valley TRAX line. They hope it will eventually relieve congestion on the Salt Lake valley's west side.
Getting TRAX to West Valley has been in the works for a long time -- talks started about 10 years ago. Voters on the west side approved a tax increase to pay for it, and today the work on the new line began.
The mayor of West Valley City was not voted into office to work a backhoe. "I've never even sat in one of those before, but I thought I did pretty good," Mayor Dennis Nordfelt said.
He was in it today, along with other nearby city leaders, to celebrate the ground breaking of the West Valley TRAX line. "This really is a bigger deal then people realize," Nordfelt said.
A big deal because it will open up the west side, according to the UTA project manager. "With the E-center here, a lot of people will use that for events. The end station goes out to the city center and the mall," Jim Webb said.
It's also a big deal to the big, brass band that played at the ceremony. The musicians, who are members of the Church of Tonga, will soon have a ride to practices and Sunday service.
"A lot of people from our church live in West Valley, and they are excited to catch the train to 1300 South, that's where our church is at," explained band member Finau Vakalahi.
The line will branch off the Salt Lake-Sandy line at the 2100 South Central Station and include four new stations: the Chesterfield Station, the Decker Lake Station, the E-Center Station and the West Valley City Center Station.
"This will probably be done in a few construction seasons, somewhere hopefully in 2011 it should open up," Webb said.
That's a long time for the band members to wait for a ride, but with gas prices at $4 a gallon and rising, they'll be patient. "Oh it's worth it. I think it's worth everything," Vakalahi said.
It's not just the West Valley TRAX line UTA is working on. Crews are also working on TRAX lines to the airport and to Draper, and FrontRunner from Salt Lake to Provo. All of those projects are expected to be done in the next three to seven years.
E-mail: abutterfield@ksl.com
