Sign spotlights Tooele road dispute

TOOELE — The state is calling it a road-widening project, but some people doing business on the main road into Tooele are calling it the Erda Hourglass, saying it looks like a bottleneck funded by a state government trying not to spend money outside Salt Lake County.

As the Utah Department of Transportation continues its work widening U-36, the major thoroughfare between I-80 and Tooele, business owner Dave Law and landowner John Allred aren't happy with plans for a chunk of the road near Erda Way. And they're making their feelings known with a huge sign illustrating their concerns to passers-by.

Law, who owns the popular Virg's Drive-In restaurant on land he leases from Allred at the Erda Way intersection, put the sign up in late August, proclaiming the area "Erda's Hourglass Hwy." The sign shows a drawing of an hourglass-shaped road and reads, "Your tax dollars at work?"

Allred and Law foresee gridlock, a two-lane highway squeezed tight at a critical intersection. The reason, Allred believes, is that UDOT is trying to build the "cheapest, most poorly designed, inexpensively constructed highway they could possibly do."

"The attitude of UDOT is such that they believe they can build junk in Tooele County and Tooele County citizens aren't going to say anything about it — or worse, they're not going to know because UDOT is cranking out the propaganda," said Allred, who lives in Salt Lake County. "The enemy — UDOT — is coming in, pulling in their shoulders and squeaking through."

But UDOT spokesman Nile Easton said Allred and Law are mistaken and that the road will actually be wider in front of Virg's, not narrower.

"We don't have a problem with him putting up signs," Easton said. "It's certainly his right. We just wish he'd put up accurate information."

With UDOT calling the construction a road-widening project and Allred talking about road-narrowing, it is possible both sides are right, depending on how you define "road."

Allred said the right-of-way on the highway will be reduced from about 200 feet north and south of the intersection to about 125 feet in front of Virg's and the Motor Vu Drive-In cinema across the street.

But Easton said the road itself will actually be wider at the U-36-Erda Way intersection. From pavement to pavement, most of the highway will be about 82 feet after reconstruction, Easton said. He said the road will widen to about 88 feet in front of Virg's.