CENTERVILLE — City officials have weighed in on what they see as the better of two proposed options for the Parrish Lane I-15 Interchange being proposed by the Utah Department of Transportation.

On Feb. 7 they voted unanimously to approve a resolution to send to UDOT outlining their position. The resolution “shows UDOT that the city has a united front and which option they’d like to see for the interchange at Parrish,” City Engineer Kevin Campbell said at the city council meeting that night. “It gives reasons as to why that option is advantageous for the city.”      

UDOT’s Option A, the one favored by city officials, features a Parrish Lane traffic diamond, with a configuration similar to what is in place currently with a northbound connection to the east frontage road.

That option is  “more friendly to bikers and pedestrians, improves traffic mobility along Parrish Lane” and “increases safety for various transportation users of the interchange,” the resolution says. Option A is also consistent with the Centerville General Plan which has several goals for the area including providing links connecting the Legacy Parkway trail with the Bonne

ville Shoreline via other city pathways and trails and establishing a bikeway that connects the east side area with the trail system of the Legacy Parkway, it says.

With this option “A little bit less vehicular traffic can get through it, but it improves Parrish Lane vehicular mobility and most of all, improves the safety for the pedestrians and for the bikers over the interchange,” Campbell told the city council at a Jan. 17 work session.

“I think our rationale for this option is that we don’t have what I’d call a runway space between the interchange and our main street,” City Councilmember Spencer Summerhays said. “It’s a very short distance compared to many other cities along the Wasatch Front and that is why we do like this option, though the delay may be a little bit more for some of the vehicles, it eases congestion through our city from that point to Main Street.”

A second option would have seen a single point urban interchange (a more complex routing of traffic over the freeway) at that location. Councilmember George McEwan requested that both options provided by UDOT be placed on the city website so residents could see what alternatives the city council was choosing between and why.

“If we vote on it I think people should at least have information on it for people to research,” he said. “Since this is going to be an omnipresent information for people for a while it should be pretty easy to find the information.”

Although some of the council members were interested in weighing in on whether there should be reversible or HOV lanes on I-15, McEwan suggested that issue be addressed in a possible future resolution.

“This is what we’re solid on; the other we’d just like,” he said. It is also uncertain how much consideration UDOT would give to city officials’ opinion on these options.

“I do feel the UDOT and I-15 team would listen more to the city on the interchange unless there was a statistic that we could show that said ‘hey this is definitely going to hurt our businesses,’” Campbell said.

It is anticipated that the final decision on the options for the Parrish Lane interchange will be made by UDOT this fall. Construction is expected to begin in 2026.