2000s: The First Decade — 10 years of heavy traffic

The First Decade — Last in a series: A new millennium was born amid concerns about the Y2K bug. Far more real fears unfolded on Sept. 11, 2001. Deseret News and Associated Press writers today continue a series of essays examining the major developments of the past decade and their impact on Utah and beyond.

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Trapped in gridlock, the pace is stop-and-slow.

The exit to the right is closed. So are the next 10 exits after that. Up ahead, the left lane is merging into traffic. Concrete barriers all around, and here comes the snow. Slick conditions. Remember the luge?

Many a car sat idle in Utah traffic over the past decade, awaiting the opening of a reconstructed I-15 or I-80, a safer U.S. 6 and the creation of Legacy Parkway.

While the vehicles on the road may have been stopped, the engineers, planners and politicians never were. Their trajectories always moved forward. Because if there's one axiom political types learn fast, it's that they won't be re-elected if the potholes don't get filled.

Take the 2009 legislative session: Utah's public colleges and universities took a 9 percent funding cut; K-12 education took a 6 percent cut; the state court system faced $6.5 million in cuts; and health and human services swallowed $62 million. Accompanying the cuts were layoffs, furloughs, early retirements and program cutbacks.

But transportation? No layoffs, furloughs or early retirements at the Utah Department of Transportation. At UDOT, they're busy: Lawmakers voted to bond for $3 billion in projects, including a reconstruction of I-15 in Utah County that's scheduled to begin this spring.

People need roads to get to work, to school and to visit loved ones. Roads also are necessary to maintain a good standard of living. About 70 percent of the goods Americans use are delivered by semitrailer trucks. Good highways are necessary to continue the consumerism that keeps the wheels of the U.S. — and Utah — economies spinning.

But that may be changing.

In the past decade, trains began to roll in the heavily populated Wasatch Front, starting with TRAX and FrontRunner commuter rail. UTA now provides more than 1.2 million train rides a month.

UTA is building 70 additional miles of light and commuter rail. And the agency has begun discussing high-speed rail in an alliance with nearby Western cities, believing it is the future.