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The bid for a tiny road near Woodland Hills was approved by the county on Wednesday and is considered the first step in the south county transportation plan.
It's an admittedly small step, but every plan has to start somewhere and nobody, but nobody, wants to end up with another north county east-west road fiasco.
"What we want to do is not dig the hole in the first place," Commissioner Gary Anderson said.
The Utah Department of Transportation is exploring multiple options for east-west roads in the north end of the county. But with the decade-old population explosion, roads there are already packed and finding clear corridors is becoming increasingly difficult. Cities like Lehi and Saratoga Springs are constantly sniping at each other over where the roads should go as they try to avoid the headaches of major roads ripping through neighborhoods.
The south end of the county has not boomed yet, but it's clearly on the horizon.
On Wednesday, the County Commission approved a bid to build a three-quarters of a mile strip of road near Woodland Hills to improve traffic flow to Interstate 15.
The road will essentially take the kink out of the State Road 198 and State Road 164 connection. Construction will start in about two weeks and be finished at the beginning of July.
The bid from Kilgore Paving and Maintenance, about $1 million, was well below the estimated $1.5 million cost, most of which is coming from state funds. The county has to match about 15 percent of the Kilgore bid.
"Everyone was hungry for the project," said Public Works Director Clyde Naylor of the low bid.
The road is three years in the making, as the county has had to negotiate with landowners in the area to purchase rights of way. About a year ago, the county traded federal funds earmarked for the project for state dollars, commissioners said. The swap saved the county money because federal funding has more requirements than state funding does. Also, the state already was working to meet federal funding requirements, so using the federal money didn't cost the state any more than it was already spending.
The impact will likely be small at first, because it will mostly affect those in Woodland Hills and Elk Ridge. But a small impact now could mean huge benefits later for thousands of county residents trying to get to an expanded I-15 or commuter rail station.
"It's a little hard to predict at this point because there's nothing to compare it to," Naylor said. |
