Eighteen businesses are opposing a plan to close part of Bingham Highway to ease the flow of traffic in West Jordan.

West Jordan's proposed transportation plan would close New Bingham Highway from 5600 West to 6400 West. Traffic would be diverted to other roads, including a planned extension of 9000 South, and Dannon Way.

The city last week received a petition from 17 businesses along the portion of the highway that would be closed, requesting that West Jordan keep the highway open. Kennecott Utah Copper did not sign the petition, but the company has also asked city officials and the Utah Department of Transportation to reconsider the plan, because the highway is part of the only route approved by UDOT for transporting large mining equipment.

The highway is "critical to Kennecott's daily operations," wrote Louis J. Cononelos, a Kennecott spokesman, in a letter last week to city officials. Closing a portion of the highway "could have grave consequences to Kennecott's operations," he added.

Tom Burdett, West Jordan's community-development director, said Tuesday that the city decided to divert traffic from the section of the New Bingham Highway because it is a diagonal street that has hazardous intersections with east-west cross streets.

But business owners like La Mar Coon, owner of 21st. Century Business Park, are baffled by the plan for the highway, which is the main east-to-west route that people from Copperton and Kennecott use.

"There is no rhythm or reason to it," he said. "They want to do their own thing, and they do it very well."

Coon last week presented the petition signed by the 17 businesses, which have a total of about 847 employees. "If the New Bingham Highway is severed as proposed in the transportation master plan, it would have a disastrous effect on our properties and businesses," the petition said.

Cononelos said Kennecott uses New Bingham Highway to transport haulage truck components. UDOT must approve the truck parts' transportation, which has to occur between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., he said, and a Utah Highway Patrol escort is required.

"It's quite the caravan," Cononelos said Tuesday. "And it's not getting smaller. The equipment is getting larger."

Burdett said that city officials are taking Kennecott's needs into consideration as they plan for transportation in West Jordan. The city officials believe that 90th South can be made large enough to accommodate Kennecott's trucks and provide a viable alternative route.

The highway will not be closed until the planned alternate routes are constructed, and that could take at least a decade, Burdett said.

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