Transportation: Road construction facing major cuts

The Utah Department of Transportation stands to lose $200 million in its capital budget, which is used to fund construction.

This budget year, UDOT received $946.1 million in capital. For next year, the governor has proposed $673.1 million in capital — a 28.9 percent decrease. The decrease would have been $250 million, but the governor is calling for a registration fees increase of $8-$22, depending on the vehicle, which will bring $50 million to UDOT, department executive director John Njord said.

The question will be which of UDOT's long list of projects get priority, Njord said. Such decisions are made by the Utah Transportation Commission.

Two weeks ago Njord put on hold some 50 construction projects that were not yet under way, costing a total of $3.9 billion over many years.

"If the Legislature adopts this budget, we'll get a lot of those projects moving again and put people back to work," Njord said about construction contractors.

— Laura Hancock