- Salt Lake City opened the 400 South Viaduct Trail and 300 West Bikeway extention.
- The city says both projects provide safety improvements for pedestrians and cyclists.
- A new law called for project mitigations; the city has met with UDOT over what could change.
SALT LAKE CITY — Standing next to the base of the 400 South Viaduct Bridge and its colorful new artwork, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said crossing this bridge on foot or bike used to be a little unnerving.
"The thought of being on that viaduct without being in a car ... was pretty scary," she said on Wednesday, as cars zoomed by above her. "There are six lanes of traffic, there are cars going faster than they probably should be, and there are no grassy medians or trees to make a pedestrian or biker feel safe moving on either side."
That was before the 400 South Viaduct Trail was completed this year, creating a new path that runs alongside 400 South from 900 West in Poplar Grove to 200 West in downtown. It also connects to the 300 West Bikeway, which was recently extended from its previous southern terminus at 900 South.
Salt Lake City spent approximately $10.2 million for both projects, which are now officially open.
However, both projects also faced uncertainty before being completed this year. SB242, which became law earlier this month, calls on the city to "mitigate the impacts of traffic calming" associated with both projects and a segment of 200 South, where a new bus lane was installed.
That's on top of a few other provisions that provide the Utah Department of Transportation more say on certain city road projects.
The two sides have met weekly to break down the new law piece by piece, since it is so large, said Lynn Jacobs, Salt Lake City's transportation director. He expects negotiations, including a better idea of any project mitigations, will continue throughout the next few months, as the two sides are required to agree on a plan by the end of this year.
The bill stoked fears that the projects could be removed, which bill sponsors said wouldn't be the case. UDOT hasn't asked for anything like that either during the first few meetings, Jacobs said.
Instead, early conversations have focused on additional signage and pavement markings, as well as new educational videos on how to use the city's new bus lanes along 200 South in downtown.
"I'm hopeful we come up with a good list that makes all these facilities just work better for everybody," he told KSL. "Right now, there's no talk about tearing things out or removing infrastructure. It's just focused on what we can do to make it more obvious how you should use the facility (and) how cars should operate."
That could change as the negotiations continue. The bill also prohibits lane-reduction projects within the city's biggest roads, while limiting the city's ability to implement them on other busy roads without UDOT approval.
The process for receiving approval for those is also being hammered out in those meetings, which could ultimately dictate how Salt Lake City rolls out future bike lanes or trails, such as the 400 South Viaduct Trail or the 300 West Bikeway.
It will have an "influence" of some kind on how the city implements its pedestrian and bicycle master plan, Jacobs said. But there could be workarounds, such as a shared-use path recently built alongside 700 East without cutting any travel lanes.
"We do need to be a little more thoughtful and intentional about how we're moving forward with this," he said. "We're looking at our master plans, reconcile these things and sort it out," he said.
All of this is to say the city's new projects are here to stay as is for the next several months while the new process is determined. The final product could create a "more predictable environment" for all modes of transportation, Mendenhall said.
She believes the 400 South Viaduct Trail will only add to the success of the 9-Line Trail, reducing traffic and making the city's transportation network more efficient.
"(It's) a better transportation system when we have more options that are safe," she said.
