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Davis Journal

UDOT to address I-15 congestion – just not anytime soon

Dec 29, 2021 03:37PM ● By Linda Petersen

Legacy Parkway has addressed some of the problem but I-15 has become more congested since then. Photo by Roger V. Tuttle

Commuters hoping for relief from congestion on I-15 through Davis County probably shouldn’t hold their breath. Although the Legacy Parkway opened in September 2008, much of the relief it provided has been mitigated by increased traffic on I-15 in recent years. Although UDOT has begun the process of identifying alternatives to address the problem, it’s going to be a long road yet.

UDOT Region 1 Senior Communications Manager Mitchell Shaw said he has been getting phone calls from people saying they’ve heard UDOT is going to widen I-15 from Farmington to Salt Lake City and hoping for details, but there just aren’t any yet. While the UDOT team has begun some very preliminary scoping meetings, sitting down with officials including Centerville Mayor Clark Wilkinson and City Manager Brant Hanson, it’s in the very early stages, Shaw said. 

“We’re engaged in scoping activities to help us identify just what are the transportation needs in the area, what the interests of the different stakeholders will be, from anybody from local government along that stretch of I-15 to citizens who use the freeway every day,” he said.

Shaw said the meetings with city officials will determine what deficiencies or gaps those local communities see in the service that currently exists and will provide data on future growth so that UDOT can be responsive to that growth.

The actual process to gather data for the Environmental Impact Statement will begin sometime next year and is expected to be complete in fall 2024. As part of the process, UDOT will identify several alternatives to address the Davis County congestion, widening of the freeway being one of them. Shaw said at this point the alternatives have not even been formulated. There will be several meetings with stakeholders along with several open houses where members of the public can provide input, he said.

Typically, in this process, UDOT will identify those corridors that will be impacted by the different alternatives and will present detailed maps and support information at the open houses. The public will be able to meet with engineers and other team members to get their questions answered. 

“Public involvement is going to be the top priority,” Shaw said.

Once the EIS is completed it will be submitted to the Federal Highway Administration for its approval. Usually, construction can start soon after although that can vary, he said. Once approved, UDOT hopes the project will be quickly funded and construction will commence. In recent years, UDOT has utilized a design build process for most of its construction which means the projects tend to be completed faster than in the past.

Still, best-case scenario, it’s going to be several years before I-15 commuters see any significant relief.

“We’re really early in the process and we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but we are trying to work closely with different cities along the corridor,” Shaw said. “Once we get rolling with this process, we’ll get some firm dates established for public involvement. We really want to hear from the public.”