KAYSVILLE—After two years of construction on the West Davis Corridor, people are still trespassing, causing damage and creating delays. The Kaysville Police took a zero-tolerance action approved by the city council that violators will now be cited if caught trespassing in the area.

“We started construction in May 2021,” said Mitch Shaw, Senior Communication Manager

Utah Department of Transportation | Region 1. “Trespassing has been persistent through the project.”

It’s happened on other projects like Highway 89 but those are already established roads, he said. “This is a different scope. It’s a huge brand new area.”

There have been people out there on ATVs, said Shaw. “We actually had snowmobiles and people walking and riding bikes. It’s a problem that has caused issues.”

There are signs posted, said Shaw. “Obviously we’ve worked with the local police but people continue to go out there for some reason.”

Early on the Kaysville police took an educational approach, he said. “They’d go out and tell them they couldn’t be there. But it continued to happen so now they’ll be handing out citations for criminal trespassing.”

It has been damaging to the project, Shaw said. “Especially in the winter. The ground is wet and they’re riding ATVs and four wheelers that tear up the roadway grade dirt surface so we have to redo that.”

Not only does it damage the project but it wastes time and money, he said. “It’s a complex project because we’re building a new highway. Doing extra work impacts the schedule. We want to finish.”

It’s an active work zone, said Shaw. “It’s not a safe place to be. We could have construction workers who are not expecting pedestrians to walk through. There’s heavy equipment and all kinds of structures out there.”

The biggest thing is safety, he said. “It’s frustrating. The police have been great to work with us. We just want people to be safe and get the project finished in a timely fashion. We just ask people to stay off.”

So far there haven’t been major problems with the schedule, said Shaw. “We’re still shooting for completion in 2024. We might even have two lanes open by the end of 2023.”