Road work is prioritized

ST. GEORGE — The state Transportation Commission spent four hours on Tuesday prioritizing a list of road projects that could receive millions in funding to be built, including one project with ties to House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy.

The commission is scheduled to approve the $1 billion in projects today in St. George. On the list are 20 projects that would widen or construct new highways in urban areas of the state, improve intersections and widen or add passing lanes on three rural highways, and build new interchanges on I-15 in South Layton and St. George.

When the commission began its discussion on Tuesday, the list of projects totaled nearly $1.1 billion. That amount was whittled down to $913 million to be spent on projects, with another $87 million to be placed in a contingency fund.

Much of the discussion centered on how much the projects would cost and how expensive this kind of work has become.

"If I was king for a day, I'm not sure I'm very comfortable that I could deliver these projects as they're presented with these budgets," said Carlos Braceras, UDOT deputy director, who recommended setting aside up to 15 percent of the state's $1 billion in a contingency fund as a cushion.

UDOT executive director John Njord said the commission would have to trim the list of projects down to meet its budget.

"We cannot do all these projects on this list with the money we currently have," he said.

An $85 million project to widen I-15 near Beck Street eventually was dropped from the list, and a request to provide $100 million for the Vineyard Connector in Utah County was sliced to $30 million.

Included on the commission's to-do list are the Mountain View Corridor, which would run from I-80 in western Salt Lake County into northwest Utah County, and a road that would run through the former site of Geneva Steel in Utah County.

If Mountain View is approved for some funding, that might eliminate the need to charge tolls on the highway, said Dave Owen, a consultant with the Utah Trucking Association, which has actively opposed a proposal to toll the $2 billion road.

As for the Geneva Road, Anderson Development, which is represented by Curtis' law firm, owns property on which the road would run and plans to develop it.

Some state transportation officials have questioned whether Curtis has a conflict of interest in pushing for funding for the road's construction.

Curtis said Tuesday that he met 10 months ago with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and state transportation officials about the funding list and disclosed all ties to the Geneva road. "If they don't think it's an appropriate expenditure, don't fund it," Curtis said.