ALAN CHOATE - Daily Herald | Posted: Tuesday, January 3, 2006 11:00 pm
The 128 miles of U.S. Highway 6 between Spanish Fork and Interstate 70 should be four lanes wide in most places, according to a decision released Tuesday by state and federal highway officials.
The "record of decision" wraps up a four-year analysis of environmental impacts on areas around the road, which runs through Spanish Fork Canyon. Now comes the task of funding the construction, which has an estimated price tag of $500 million.
There were 12 traffic-accident deaths on the stretch of U.S. 6 in 2005, an increase over previous years. Between 1999 and 2004, there were an average of eight traffic fatalities there per year, according to the Utah Department of Transportation.
It's not known when the money will be available or how long construction would take, said Nile Easton, a UDOT spokesman.
"That's indefinite," he said. "That's the next step for us -- developing a time frame."
In the meantime, about $50 million has been set aside to pay for smaller improvement projects on the highway over the next three years.
Work has been done on U.S. 6 since 1996, said Easton, but "they were a lot of different pieces."
"This puts the whole corridor as one project," he said. "This was the first step toward looking at this as one problem."
The decision proposes that the highway have two lanes traveling in each direction for most of the corridor. In some areas the road would narrow to two or three lanes to avoid harming wetlands.
UDOT has spent about $110 million since 1996 on improvements to U.S. 6. Other upcoming projects include:
Reconstruction of a bridge at milepost 200 near Skyview.
Additional passing lanes between and Scofield Junction and Pine Tree Park (approximately mileposts 215 to 220).
Widening the road and straightening a curve near the Tucker Rest Area.
Construction of an interchange in Helper.
More information about the EIS and projects on the corridor can be found at www.udot.utah.gov/us6.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.