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SALT LAKE CITY — Lynn Jacobs points out that the Utah Transit Authority's S-Line streetcar was never intended to end at its current terminus — Fairmont Station — when the Utah Transit Authority launched the service in late 2013.
And soon it will no longer be the easternmost end of the line.
UTA plans to begin construction as early as this summer to extend the line along 1100 East and Simpson Avenue. Its new end of line — once the project wraps up in 2026 — will be located by the intersection of Simpson Avenue and Highland Drive.
While it's a small project on paper — only adding about 900 feet of line and moving the terminus a block east of Fairmont Station — Jacobs, a transportation engineer for Salt Lake City, says it's a big step toward unlocking the streetcar's much larger potential.
"We always like to refer to this project as putting the head on the body, because that's really what this is about," he told members of the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City during a meeting last week. "It's making it more visible and getting another block extension — and then setting us up for the future."
The small extension has been in the works for some time. In 2021, the Utah Legislature allocated $12 million to the project within a $264 million transportation bond set up through a bill it passed.
In addition to extending the line, crews would build a new traffic light and rail crossing at the intersection of Sugarmont Drive and McClelland Street, directly east of the current station, according to UTA project manager Marcus Bennett.
There will also be new double-tracking between 500 East and 700 East to help ensure the streetcar runs every 15 minutes. Its frequency jumped from every 20 minutes to every 15 minutes in 2019 after UTA double-tracked the line between 300 East and 500 East.
A sliver of Sugarmont Drive between McClelland Street and Highland Drive will be closed off to vehicular traffic, but the city plans to maintain some access on the current roadway for the Parley's Trail that runs alongside almost the entire S-Line route.
The section set to close is a one-way street that isn't used as regularly as other streets in the neighborhood, Jacobs said. He added that every master plan of the area he could find indicates that city leaders have intended to close it off eventually.
Tracy Tran, a senior project manager for the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City, said a pair of buildings located between Sugarmont Drive and Simpson Avenue would be torn down for the project. The agency prepared for this by dedicating $550,000 in its 2024 fiscal year toward the demolition.
Both buildings are located on land owned by the RDA and would be replaced by some sort of new development in the future.
"It will be some sort of mixed-use (development) because we would need to have ground-floor commercial space along Highland, but the overall goal will be affordable housing," she said.
A small step toward the future
Meanwhile, city transportation planners and city leaders hope the S-Line's first extension is not its last.
There had been discussions to have the S-Line travel farther into Salt Lake City's Sugar House neighborhood as it was initially planned. Talks to extend the line never died after the service debuted, but they changed shape over time.
Holladay, Millcreek, Salt Lake City and South Salt Lake officials published a long-term plan in 2022 that includes a desire to extend the streetcar line by having it run mostly alongside Highland Drive all the way down to Murray-Holladay Road in Holladay. That would be an addition of a little over 25 blocks from the current line. The line could continue east along Murray-Holladay Road after that.
Jacobs explained that the upcoming project will include some space set aside for future double-tracking if it is ever needed during future expansions.
Salt Lake City Councilwoman Sarah Young, who represents Sugar House, said extending the line to Highland Drive should improve access to the business district, which is a bonus now while the plans for the future play out.
"It really sets up for other opportunities," she said. "We're taking a small step now with the opportunity then that opens up for the future."
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