St. George transportation expo draws big crowd

ST. GEORGE — Hundreds of people showed up in St. George on Tuesday to review plans for more than a dozen transportation projects idling just over the horizon in Utah's fastest growing county.

"We wanted to not only help people understand what's happening, but to let them know what the timelines are for some of these projects," said Myron Lee, the public involvement coordinator for the Utah Department of Transportation Region Four. "Normally, if we get 30 or so people to an open house, we're happy. So we were extremely pleased with the turnout at this event."

More than 750 people strolled the booths of the free expo held at the Dixie Center. Many took a moment to visit with project engineers, voice concerns or seek answers to questions.

Comments posted on a wallboard expressed frustrations with traffic signals, unfinished or flood-damaged trail systems, big truck rigs using tightly wound roundabouts and dangerous intersections throughout St. George. Various booths dealt with things like building a long-distance off-road vehicle trail, adding more public transportation and plans for beltway routes that would connect Ivins with Bloomington/SunRiver and St. George with Hurricane.

"As an urbanized area, as a whole, we're trying to get our arms around these transportation projects," said St. George city traffic engineer Aron Baker. "We know we have to plan as a group and that what we do impacts other cities. We wanted to get the message out that a lot of these projects involve the whole community and we wanted their comments and guidance."

Anonymous comments were accepted throughout the process and many people voiced their thoughts and concerns, said Lee.

Construction under way on St. George Boulevard, which is adding raised medians and eliminating many left turn options, is financially hurting many of the smaller business owners, and there is widespread concern that a project planned for Bluff Street will do the same.

"We had comments left on maps, on the wall board, at booths and on forms," said Lee. "We have a huge job ahead of us to just compile the comments and forward them to the right jurisdiction."

Representatives from UDOT, various Washington County cities, different engineering firms and the Dixie Transportation Planning Organization gathered at the expo with charts, handouts and other visual tools to illustrate 17 transportation projects.