Legacy Highway near top on 'wasteful' list

The Legacy Highway, including the 14-mile Legacy Parkway through Davis County, is the third-most-wasteful highway project in the nation, according to a Washington, D.C., taxpayer advocacy group.

In a report released Wednesday by Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Legacy Highway was third on a list of 27 projects criticized by the group for wasting money, harming the environment and hurting local communities.

But Tom Hudachko, spokesman for the Utah Department of Transportation, says that other than the 14 miles of the parkway through Davis County, UDOT has no plans to build any other part of Legacy, which was proposed by former Gov. Mike Leavitt in 1996.

"We don't see a need even in the next 30 years to build north of Farmington or south of Davis County," Hudachko said. "There are no plans on the books now to build anything other than the 14-mile stretch to Farmington."

The controversial Legacy Parkway, opposed by Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson and some environmental groups, is designed to take traffic off a crowded I-15 through Davis County, which can become a parking lot when accidents cause miles-long traffic jams.

Erich Zimmermann, author of the TCS report, "Road to Ruin," said his group is concerned UDOT will use the $450 million Legacy Parkway as a foot in the door to get additional funding down the road for the whole 120-mile project from Nephi, Juab County, to Brigham City.

"The biggest factor we take into account is the cost to federal taxpayers. Legacy is too expensive and does too much harm to the environment and local communities it goes through," he said.

Marc Heileson of the Utah Sierra Club expressed his pleasure Wednesday with the report. "We're pleased a nonpartisan taxpayers watchdog group would highlight what we always thought was a waste of taxpayers' money."

Heileson said he was shocked to learn Hudachko would claim UDOT has no plans to build any of the Legacy other than the parkway through Davis County. "We know half of the project is in the planning stages because they are doing the environmental impact statements."

The Wasatch Front Regional Council, a planning agency comprised of local government agencies, has the Legacy Highway on its Web site under long-range plans, he said. "It's the same corridor Gov. Leavitt laid out in 1996. They show construction from Burke Lane (in Farmington) to Gentile Street (in Layton). The next phase shows it going up to Weber County."

Utah County planners also are showing the Legacy from the Salt Lake County line south following the same corridors Leavitt proposed in 1996, Heileson said.