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Jed Boal ReportingConstruction on Legacy Parkway will gain speed in the coming months. After more than a decade on the drawing board and a few years tied up in court, the highway is taking shape.
Twenty months from now the long-delayed Legacy Parkway will carry its first cars. Through controversy and compromise, Project Director Todd Jensen says the project has evolved.
Todd Jensen, Legacy Parkway Project Director: "Because of the delays, we've started to work much more closely with the developers, the local communities."
Combined with commuter rail, the 14-mile road will transform the way the people of Weber and Davis Counties get around.
Todd Jensen: "This project has been around for years, and we're anxious to get relief to the commuters in Davis County."
The four-lane parkway will run from I-215 in North Salt Lake to the Farmington interchange with I-15 and Highway 89. Motorists will also enter and exit at 500 South in West Bountiful and Parrish Lane. UDOT projects Legacy will cut I-15 traffic in Davis County by 30 percent.
Legacy includes a nature preserve and a trail for biking, hiking and horses that parallels the parkway.
Todd Jensen, Legacy Parkway Project Director: "It's really about trying to fit in with the community that's there. I think we've done a much more in-depth research of how to incorporate the facility and make it fit with the environment that it's in."
For example, a flood basin was redesigned as a pond.
Construction rolls along with warm weather. This summer you'll see even more progress.. The total cost for the project is $685 million. Expect a grand opening in fall 2008.
