From Deseret News archives:

Panel OKs $1 billion in road construction

Also, UDOT officials say U.S. 6 toll not financially sound

Published: Friday, June 22, 2007 12:03 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
ST. GEORGE — Road construction projects totaling nearly $1 billion were given the green light from the Utah Transportation Commission during its meeting here Wednesday.

"This list isn't rigid," Commissioner Stephen Bodily said before the panel voted to approve nearly two dozen projects scattered throughout the state. "We will listen to public comment and there may be some changes down the line before this becomes part of our program."

The commission's recommendations will be presented to the Legislature's Executive Appropriations Committee for review in July.

Utah Department of Transportation officials also updated the commission on an analysis that looked at making U.S. 6 and the proposed Southern Parkway near St. George toll roads.

"To look at tolling you have to look at alternate routes," said UDOT Region 4 director Dal Hawks. "Toll rates are based on the time you would save by taking the toll road."

According to the study, Hawks said, placing a toll on U.S. 6 would not make financial sense.

"The study, in some sense, bore out our suspicions that U.S. 6 is still a rural road and tolling wouldn't create the revenue it might in another corridor," Hawks said. "It's also very difficult to toll existing highways."

Story continues below
The Southern Parkway would begin at a new intersection now under construction about six miles north of the Utah border with Arizona. The new highway would connect traffic to the new $200 million St. George airport, scheduled to open in 2011.

"Tolling looks like it has some promise, but other tools hold more promise," Hawks said.

Some of those funding sources could be a reallocation of future property taxes, imposing special tax assessments or using development impact fees, he added.

"We feel very good about the opportunity to capture some of these revenue streams to help fund the Southern Parkway," Hawks said.


E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

Related content
previousnext

Latest comments

watch out for next year for sure, the negatives are just closet (and...

And something else, I generally follow players from the state schools when...

I could care less that Max Hall said what he did. The feeling is mutual BYU...

BYU is champion of the state

Dear Max, probably could have done without that comment. Probably would've...

Hall mouths off about hate of Utah

As a Utah fan, let me first say congratulations to Max Hall, the Cougars, and...

Geno's and Pat's are good.. but, they are mostly for tourists, the real...

Hall mouths off about hate of Utah

(You even got a middle initial... how's that for 'ya Max) It's nice to see...

Air Up There, The

Even today, I still cannot get enough of this movie or Charles Gitonga Maina....

Cougars beat Utes in overtime

...disappointed with Max Hall's comments that he hates everything about UofU....

Over the last few days I read comments of people complaining about tasteless...

Advertisements