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LEHI — Work is underway on a new pedestrian bridge that will connect two parts of nearly 8-miles of the Historic Utah Southern Rail Trail. The project is part of a plan to further connect a series of urban trails within Utah and Salt Lake counties.
The bridge itself will span over Timpanogos Highway, state Route 92, in Lehi and allow trail users to cross over the highway safely, once the project is completed in spring 2021. The sections of the Utah Southern Rail Trail and the Murdock Canal Trail south of the highway near Triumph Boulevard are closed until then, said Darryl Jacques, public involvement manager for Jacques & Associates.
Construction of the bridge isn’t expected to disrupt highway traffic anytime soon, but there are plans to temporarily close the highway to install bridge girders, likely in March 2021.
The bridge is among a group of Wasatch Front projects funded by a $20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program. The TIGER grant was given to the Utah Transit Authority in 2016 to help improve bicycle and pedestrian access to UTA’s FrontRunner and TRAX stations, according to the Daily Herald.
The ultimate plan for the trail, which was created from the old Utah Southern railroad lines, is to carve a recreational path from Vineyard to southern Salt Lake County via Point of the Mountain, Jacques explained in a news release. This includes connections to the Murdock Canal Trail in Lehi and the Porter Rockwell Trail in Draper.
Just last month, the mayors from the two cities celebrated the connection of the two trails, which allows recreationists access to over 30 miles of connected urban trails. It was hailed as the longest connection of urban trails east of I-15. The Jordan River Parkway already connects Utah and Salt Lake counties and connects with a trail system in Davis County, but that’s west of I-15.
Also in July, Salt Lake County officials celebrated the debut of a new pedestrian bridge and the White City Canal Trail. The trail allows recreationists the ability to go from White City to the beginning of the Porter Rockwell Trail in Sandy.
