Transportation board approves $64 million in stimulus road projects

TAYLORSVILLE — The Utah Transportation Commission gave an OK Wednesday to dozens of road projects local governments will build with $64 million in congressional economic stimulus money.

President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Feb. 17, and Utah's portion of that $787 billion is $213 million. Of that, $143 million will be spent on projects for the Utah Department of Transportation. The Transportation Commission, a governing body over road-building projects, approved a list of nearly 40 projects two weeks ago.

Wednesday's meeting looked at project proposals for smaller transportation organizations — the Wasatch Front Regional Council, Mountainland Association of Governments, Dixie Metropolitan Planning Organization and Cache Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Transportation Commissioner J. Stuart Adams said that even though the transportation portion of the stimulus package is small, about $48 billion for emergency projects of the $787 billion package, it's "probably the proportion people will see."

The Wasatch Front Regional Council, which represents Utah's largest urban areas of Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties, gets the largest chunk of stimulus money — $37.5 million, said Ahmed Jaber, UDOT director of systems, planning and programming.

The money will be spent on about 10 projects, including widening the I-15 northbound and southbound ramps at 9000 South and widening Syracuse Road from 1000 West to 2000 West in Davis County.

The Mountainland Association of Govenments, which includes Utah, Wasatch and Summit counties, will receive $9.9 million. The largest projects will be improving intersections of University Avenue near the Provo Canyon.

The Dixie MPO will get $3.16 million to use for two bridges — the Valley View Bridge, which was wiped out during flooding in 2005, and a bridge over the Virgin River for Washington Field Road. Those projects will also cost more than the stimulus money provides, and local governments and the state will kick in the extra funds, Jaber said.

Although the UDOT projects need to be "shovel ready" in 90 days, the local government projects have to be done in a year, Jaber said.

"Most of them will be ready within 90 days," he said. "That's our goal. We want them to be built this calendar year."

E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com