Salt Lake City officials look to bridge gap on funding for viaduct

With some penny-pinching and help from nearby business owners, Salt Lake City could close the multimillion-dollar funding gap that has put the rebuild of the North Temple viaduct in jeopardy, officials say.

"We are hopeful that we are going to be able to get there and give the green light to the project," Ben McAdams, a senior adviser to Mayor Ralph Becker, told the Deseret News this week. "It still requires a lot of cooperation from a lot of areas, entities and individuals."

With $25 million from the Utah Transit Authority, $5 million from the Wasatch Front Regional Council and the 11th-hour delivery of $20 million from the Utah Legislature earlier this year, Salt Lake leaders believed the rebuild was in good shape, only to see the projected cost grow substantially in recent months.

As UTA begins construction on the North Temple TRAX line, a deadline for designing the bridge and ordering materials looms. But city leaders are making progress in closing the funding gap and reducing the price tag to the original $65 million target, McAdams said.

The city is considering everything from not moving the City Creek conduit ($4 million in savings) to ordering steel before a winter deadline ($200,000 in savings), according to city documents. The project also would have to be completed with money in mind; developers would have to constantly reassess the project, making sure not to go over budget.

With $50 million in the bank for the viaduct, the city is looking to adjacent landowners to help make up the difference. A special assessment area there would secure up to $4 million for the project, according to city documents, while a community development area would add $12.5 million.

The CDA would capture incremental property value increases from businesses in an eight-block stretch just north of the viaduct. City leaders believe the viaduct will be a boon to the area. One company, Gastronomy, already has plans for $100 million development in that area.

If those options do not pan out, the city could delay road improvements along 1300 East or refinance an agreement with Gateway Associates, pocketing a savings of $4.5 million, McAdams said.

Any bridge design would include two lanes of roadway traffic, eastbound and westbound TRAX lines on the north side of the viaduct, 6-foot bike lanes and at least 8-foot-wide sidewalks on both sides of the bridge.

Near the top of the bridge, a platform TRAX station would provide connections to FrontRunner and adjacent neighborhoods.

The ideal design would include about 500 feet of open area under the bridge, allowing for the vehicle and pedestrian traffic city leaders deem crucial to creating a connection between the Gateway and the future Gastronomy development. But as a last resort, UTA could snake the TRAX line under the existing viaduct at about 5 mph.

Becker is expected to make a recommendation on the viaduct project sometime in the next two weeks, McAdams said.

e-mail: afalk@desnews.com