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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Transportation is accepting public comment through the end of the month on its Statewide Rural Long-Range Transportation Plan that includes a detailed list of proposed projects for the coming decades.
The plan, updated every four years, breaks projects down into three phases to be completed before 2030, 2040 and 2050. UDOT Region Four, which includes the entire southern half of the state, is in line for the highest number of projects in the plan.
The document predicts that these projects will collectively cost just under $1.73 billion.
Christopher Chesnut, UDOT’s long-range planning manager, said public comments help the agency in two major ways.
“One, we want to make sure with this plan that we’ve captured the ideas that have been shared with us throughout the state,” Chesnut said. “And second … since we do this every four years, we use the ideas that come out and the feedback that we get from this plan to move forward into the next plan.”
“We’re always trying to make the plan a little bit better,” he said.
Data from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, included in the draft long-range plan, predicts that Washington County’s population will grow by 117% by 2050; Wasatch County is slated for 100% growth.
Make sure to check out UDOT's Statewide Rural Long-Range Transportation Plan! Visit https://t.co/dC4aHMb8J6 to review the new plan & provide comments through Dec. 31, 2019. For more info, please email planning@utah.gov. The final project list will be available early 2020. pic.twitter.com/WJHSApwCbf
— Utah DOT (@UtahDOT) December 16, 2019
Chesnut said UDOT spoke with the cities that will be most affected, like St. George, about their needs moving forward.
“What we heard is that not only is there a need for local infrastructure development in some of these small towns, and some of these places that are growing, but the need is also to meet the demand of people coming to visit the state,” he said. “Often, that doesn’t show up all the time in our travel demand models. So we have to talk to the folks to make sure we understand what’s going on.”
Indeed, the draft cites Gardner Policy Institute data that reports record tourism in 2018, including 10.6 million visits to Utah’s national parks, 6.7 million state park visits and 5.1 million skier days.
Two projects that Chesnut heard discussed around the state included a proposed transit connection between Moab and Salt Lake City and between St. George and Zion National Park.
“We’re now working actively on a transit connection between St. George and Zion Park that will help carry people for the day to go see Zion Park on a bus,” he said. “That’s another way of reducing the impact of vehicles into Zion Park.”
He said UDOT is also beginning to consider how the agency can incorporate “active transportation,” or bike lanes, into rural areas away from the urban cores where they’re currently prevalent.
Some of the pricier items on UDOT’s draft long-range plan include a $170 million roadway extending state Route 201 to state Route 36; almost $155 million to add a lane in each direction on U.S. Highway 6 for about five miles in Utah County; and $81 million to widen I-80 by one lane in each direction between state Route 36 and Midvalley Highway, a long-term Phase 3 project.
Utahns who would like to comment on the draft long-range plan can email planning@utah.gov.
