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Plans are moving forward with the proposed Mountain View Corridor – the effort to build a major highway along the west side of the Salt Lake Valley. Without doubt, it is a project that is needed to meet future transportation demands.
In coming decades, homes will cover alfalfa fields and subdivisions will be filled with cars. The population will boom.
However, in the exuberance to satisfy the need to move commuter traffic north and south, planners must not overlook what’s happening with east-west traffic in the valley, especially west of I-15. Even now gridlock is not uncommon on key roads. We can only wonder, with a bit of restrained horror, what it will be like in coming years if the problem isn’t given adequate attention now.
In KSL’s view, there must be “a balance of freeway, highway, arterial street, and collector road projects,” as recommended in the most recent update of the Wasatch Front Urban Area Long Range Transportation Plan. Of course, mass transit should be part of the equation.
So, as the Utah Department of Transportation continues to take public comment through August 31 on the Mountain View Corridor concepts, KSL hopes east-west traffic concerns will be more than a weak blip on UDOT’s planning radar screens.
