The Utah Department of Transportation has cleared the road for its Interstate 15 widening project from Farmington to Salt Lake City.
Department officials released the final environmental report last month for the proposed expansion and mostly finalized how many lanes the freeway eventually would carry: five general lanes, one HOV lane and, in most sections, an auxiliary lane for on- and off-ramps.
“Since the study began, our purpose has been to analyze and recommend transportation solutions that improve mobility and quality of life for all users of the corridor in the face of rapid growth,” UDOT officials wrote in an email accompanying the final report. “The alternatives we have studied throughout this process would address projected growth in travel demand in the corridor, replace aging infrastructure, and improve connections across I-15.”
Decades of research show adding more lanes doesn’t reduce traffic in the long run as travelers make more trips, longer trips and use their cars more frequently.
Ever since UDOT announced plans to expand the interstate, west-siders and other opponents have raised concerns about worse air pollution, home demolitions in adjacent neighborhoods, and how a swollen freeway would further widen the east-west divide in Utah’s capital. In the 683-page report, state officials offered final answers to those questions and laid out how the expansion would affect neighborhoods bordering the freeway.
Now, with plans mostly finalized, the project can move full speed ahead toward funding and construction. The document estimates the widening would cost $3.7 billion, more than double the initial estimate of $1.7 billion. Utah legislators have already allocated that $1.7 billion to the undertaking.
What you need to know from the report
The wider freeway would affect private and public properties up and down the corridor — during construction and permanently.
• At least 19 businesses would have to be relocated. Ten more might need to move, depending on later analysis.
Those that certainly would have to move include a salon called MiaBel Studio in Bountiful, an IHOP restaurant in Woods Cross and the Lifetime Store in Salt Lake City. The former Salt City Inn would also have to make way for a redesigned 1000 North on- and off-ramp.
Some residents would have to leave their current homes, too.
• Four houses would be demolished, including three mobile homes at Colonial Woods Mobile Home Park in North Salt Lake. The other, at 399 W. State St. in Farmington, is known as the Orson Richards and Lucile Barlow Clark House, and is a part of the Clark Lane National Historic District.
A Farmington City Council member, teacher and grandson of Erza T. Clark, one of Farmington’s original polygamist businessmen, Orson Richards Clark built the 1940 cottage in the Period Revival style, featuring concentric brick arches at its front door and a multicolor brick exterior.
• 25 other homes may have to be torn down, including 14 in Salt Lake City that back up to the freeway along Edmonds Place and Argyle Court in the Guadalupe neighborhood.
• Three other historic properties eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places would be altered by the project.
• Bountiful Bowl, built in 1946, would lose its big sign out front and parking on its west side. The structure itself, though, would not be affected.
• The U.S. Bank building in North Salt Lake would lose its drive-thru and parking areas. UDOT may opt to buy the entire property if those losses impact the business significantly.
• A Quonset hut built in 1953 at 825 N. Warm Springs Road in Salt Lake City and used by Granite Construction would be removed. Quonset huts originally were developed as easy-to-build, prefabricated barracks during World War II. This one is an example of postwar industrial growth north of downtown.
Some green spaces near the freeway would see significant changes, as well.
• UDOT would have to acquire small portions of Ezra T. Clark Park, Farmington’s South Park, Centerville Community Park and the Woods Cross High School playing fields.
South Park would lose its skate park, and UDOT would have to provide money for a new skate park in the Davis County suburb.
• Temporary construction would happen on the fields at Farmington Junior High and Woods Cross Elementary schools as well as at Hatch, North Gateway and Warm Springs parks.
• Part of the Farmington Creek Trail would need replacement.
Mitigation measures
The report touts improvements for hikers and bikers across the freeway and within the project’s study area.
• UDOT plans to build a separated multiuse path along Beck Street from North Salt Lake into Utah’s capital and another connecting 500 South to the Woods Cross FrontRunner station.
• The project would add four more grade-separated crossings of I-15 — at Centerville Community Park, 200 North in Centerville, 800 West in North Salt Lake, and at 1000 North in Salt Lake City.
• Seven interchanges would get pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly upgrades.
For those worried about hearing more traffic on the freeway, UDOT plans to add three new noise walls and replace 13 others. Their models predict the new walls would reduce noise slightly from current levels.
The report means officials can move forward with acquiring property, completing final engineering documents and construction, depending on funding.
