Let’s Break The Bottleneck!
By Dennis Nordfelt
West Valley Mayor and Wasatch Front Regional Council chair
In the upcoming session of the Utah State Legislature, our lawmakers will face many difficult issues, not the least of which is how to pay for necessary transportation improvements to keep the urban area from descending into gridlock. Using the best available estimates on population and travel demand increases, it has become apparent that within the next ten years, at current levels of investment, traffic congestion will get much worse than it is now. We cannot wait until traffic gets so bad that it begins to damage our economy and adds to our air pollution. A typical highway project takes at least five years to design and construct. In other words, the time to act is NOW.
With the need to act pressing upon us, an excellent opportunity to break a traffic bottleneck has presented itself. This coming Spring, UDOT will begin widening I-15 in Weber County from 31st Street, where the freeway narrows to two lanes and creates a bottleneck, to 12th Street. Unfortunately, this will only move the bottleneck a little farther north. UDOT correctly estimates that 12th Street is as far north as the $214 million they have to spend will take them. An additional $35 million could take the widening project to its obvious conclusion at the 27th North interchange where the urban area and the heavy traffic ends. Plus, an extra $16 million would rebuild the interchange at 27th North which is a narrow, two lane underpass typical of rural areas. The only problem is northern Weber County has grown and continues to grow far beyond the quiet rural area the interchange was designed for 40 years ago.
We understand that within the State’s budget, there are competing needs. Nevertheless, the requirement for additional investment in our transportation infrastructure is so compelling and the present opportunity for extending the widening of I-15 in Weber County so fleeting, that we at the Wasatch Front Regional Council strongly support the application of an additional $51 million of Utah General Fund money to this project. If we do this, we will permanently break a bottleneck on a major freeway, inconvenience the residents of Weber County only once, and save money by using a contractor who is already mobilized on another portion of the project.
The time to act is now because the window of opportunity is rapidly
closing. We believe that as legislators weigh the options for the
use of the money, the need for a free flowing artery of commerce
in a major urban area of our state will rise to the top. In other
words, we believe that common sense would dictate that we should
give the money to the project and FINISH THE JOB!
Mobility Advocacy
Commentary on Utah Transportation
By LaVarr Webb
Best article this week illustrating the enormous need for transportation
improvements is a lengthy
story by Caleb Warnock of the Daily Herald, documenting
the terrible traffic congestion in northern Utah County. It would
be very interesting to ask the folks in Eagle Mountain, Saratoga
Springs and Lehi whether they’d prefer a tax cut or to get their
roads fixed.
Rep. John Dougall has taken a lot of criticism for proposing
a bill prohibiting local governments from hiring federal lobbyists
to win transportation funding earmarks. While I don’t think putting
restrictions on local governments is a good idea, I agree with Dougall
that a problem exists in coordinating federal funding requests and
something needs to be done. In some cases, earmarking has provided
more money than is needed on a project. Sometimes duplicate earmarks
are obtained for the same project. UDOT’s top priorities sometimes
aren’t funded, while projects of much lesser importance get money.
Let’s not hamstring local governments, but let’s coordinate a lot
better on federal transportation funding requests.
High
Country News’ cover story on Nov. 14 was a lengthy feature
on how rail transit is being embraced in a number of Mountain West
cities. Thanks to a tax increased approved by voters in November
2004, the greater Denver area now has a $4.7 billion program going
to build 119 new miles of light rail, commuter rail and bus rapid
transit over the next 10 years. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper
said, “Nobody can believe we did it . . . we got Republicans, Democrats,
conservative and liberals to support the most ambitious transit
issue in U.S. history.” A sidebar
article highlights Salt Lake City’s success with light rail
and notes that Phoenix is starting a $1.3 billion rail project.
The Washington
Post reports
that the D.C., area is turning to tolls and public-private-partnerships
to provide mobility. Commuters will be able to avoid gridlock –
for a price. It’s clearly the wave of the future. Transportation
agencies and citizens across the country are realizing that if we
want better mobility it’s going to be costly. We have to assess
the value of mobility and be willing to tax ourselves for public
transit and highways, or pay tolls.
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