Kids line a busy road waiting for the school bus each morning in Copperton at the intersection of Park Street and New Bingham Highway.
A couple of blocks south, people cross Hillcrest Street daily to reach leafy Copperton Park from its designated parking lot across the street.
A grant from the federal Department of Transportation was supposed to help the Greater Salt Lake Municipal Services District make those intersections safer for pedestrians and drivers alike. The district is a governmental entity that helps Salt Lake County’s smallest communities deliver services to their residents.
But work hasn’t started on the project as the Trump administration continues to review grants made under the Biden team.
“The goal of the grant was to test different-traffic calming measures in key areas in White City and Copperton to help inform long-term solutions,” district spokesperson Maridene Alexander explained in an email. “We’ve been placed on hold and haven’t been able to move forward with that.”
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The Copperton and White City grant is one of a handful of Utah transportation projects under review by the new administration. The new process has put at least $115 million in federal funding at risk for Utah communities from Ogden to St. George. The transportation-specific holds are just one example of the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to claw back dollars — like the Beehive State’s largest environmental grant ever — previously appropriated under former President Joe Biden.
Federal transportation staff did not reply to an inquiry from The Salt Lake Tribune.
The planned Copperton and White City project, totaling $400,000 in federal dollars and another $100,000 in local funds, was a part of the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All campaign. The program aims to reduce traffic deaths and injuries by slowing down cars and was a part of Biden’s 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The intersection of Freeman Gulch and Bingham Highway in Copperton on Tuesday, April 1, 2025.
District officials planned to spend the money on testing temporary traffic-calming measures — speed bumps, crosswalks and median refuges for those on foot — in both communities. At the bus stop in Copperton, officials had proposed creating a new, more visible space for kids to wait and adding a display of mining artifacts.
District officials say they don’t have a timeline for when the project may get off the starting line, given the federal funding status.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The intersection of Freeman Gulch and Park Street in Copperton on Tuesday, April 1, 2025.
UDOT grants getting second look
The Utah Department of Transportation has a trio of multimillion-dollar projects under additional federal review at the moment.
In St. George, an almost $88 million grant was slated to partially fund two new Interstate 15 underpasses at 400 East and 900 South. In their application, officials wrote the new connections would provide poorer neighborhoods with more mobility and better access to schools, grocery stores and workplaces.
A UDOT project to build better connections for those walking or cycling to 23 Wasatch Front transit stops was due to receive the bulk of its funding, over $24 million, from the federal government. The plans include multiple buffered bike lanes running to and from Midvale’s three TRAX stops, multiuse paths in Murray and Sandy and an off-street trail linking the City Center TRAX station to Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s Green Loop and City Creek Park.
A smaller $2 million project to build so-called connected intersections that broadcast radio signals to vehicles to help drivers avoid crashes also remains under consideration.
Despite the ongoing reviews, UDOT officials say none of the projects has been delayed nor changed. About 18% of the agency’s budget comes from federal funding.
“It’s common for any administration to review and evaluate how those federal funds are being spent,” UDOT spokesperson John Gleason said. “We’ll continue to work closely with our federal partners and with the administration to understand how we can deliver projects within those guidelines.”
UTA in similar spot
The Utah Transit Authority has grants under review by the Federal Transit Administration, officials say. While spokesperson Gavin Gustafson said he didn’t have details on the specific projects, he relayed that UTA uses federal grants for capital costs like buying vehicles or adding transit stations. The agency has not yet seen any adverse effects due to the new review process.
Gustafson added that at least one big project is on the right track. UTA’s Midvalley Express rapid bus route from Murray to West Valley City is still set to open in 2026. He also expressed confidence that the agency will be able to roll with whatever comes next from the Trump administration.
“To put it simply, we’ve been around for 55 years,” Gustafson said. “We’ve seen changes before, and so, we’re adaptable. We can roll with those changes.”
Salt Lake City transportation boss Jon Larsen is more uneasy. He said his team is still working to sort through Trump’s executive orders and federal policy memos to understand how federal policy changes might affect projects in Utah’s capital.
“We’re trying,” he said, “to figure that out.”
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