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The Wasatch Front Regional Council last month approved a slew of projects coming to northern Utah over the next six years — and reaffirmed a plan to widen Interstate 15.
The regional planning agency (made up of officials from Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, Morgan, Box Elder and Tooele counties) included the interstate expansion in its 2024-2029 “Transportation Improvement Program” (TIP), which the council approved Aug. 24.
The action was more of a reaffirmation of the plan to widen the roadway, because the council first approved a TIP that included I-15 widening last year.
The five-year transportation plan draws from the council’s greater regional transportation plan, which outlines a blueprint of transportation investments across the Wasatch Front through 2050, including the Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola.
Inside the TIP are projects at or close to being “shovel ready,” said Mike Sobczak, the council’s communications manager — including the proposed I-15 expansion.
How much would the I-15 expansion cost?
The proposed I-15 expansion would stretch from Farmington’s Shepard Lane to Salt Lake City’s 400 South.
It’s unclear just how wide it could become — an environmental study is still underway, but a draft should be released sometime this fall. That draft will include detailed information about the Utah Department of Transportation’s options for widening I-15.
Even without those details, this year’s TIP estimates the I-15 expansion will cost about $1.7 billion, although UDOT director Carlos Braceras said it will likely end up costing more.
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
That funding will come from the state’s Transportation Investment Fund, Sobczak said.
Once the drafted environmental impact study (EIS) is released, the public can give feedback during a public comment period and hearing on those options.
After public comment is over, UDOT will prepare its final EIS on the project, and eventually issue a record of decision of how they choose to widen the roadway.
I-15 expansion protests
Though a formal public comment period has not yet opened, members of the public have still protested the expansion plan.
On Aug. 5, the Rose Park Brown Berets hosted a bicycle cruise on the west side, rallying against the planned I-15 widening with signs that read, “Youth vs. UDOT,” and, “Don’t pave over us.”
During the Wasatch Front Regional Council meeting on Aug. 24, Melanie Hall, a policy associate from the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, asked the council to remove all items related to I-15′s expansion from this year’s TIP until UDOT releases its drafted environmental impact statement.
“We’ve been working closely with west-side residents concerned about the potential impacts from a I-15 expansion, including disruption to businesses, relocation of families and individuals during construction, and noise and air pollution,” Hall said. “We encourage the WFRC to consider the cumulative impacts from emissions when planning Utah’s transportation future, specifically from the expansion of major roadways like I-15 and Bangerter Highway.”
Braceras, with UDOT, said the I-15 expansion plan is evolving as the environmental study continues continues, and that although they project no Salt Lake City residents will have to be relocated, residents from other communities will — an impact he said is “unavoidable,” particularly where the roadway is parallel with FrontRunner and Union Pacific Railroad tracks.
“We’ve worked hard to try to minimize those impacts in the Salt Lake City area and throughout the entire corridor,” Braceras said. “The process works. It’s painful, it’s disruptive to people, but we always end up with a better answer with going through the process with an open mind.”
Also approved last month were 20 new items to last year’s TIP — including trailhead improvements at Neff’s Canyon; pavement rehabilitation on US-89 between State Route 204 and State Route 134; and a bridge replacement along Highland Drive over Big Cottonwood Creek.
