Panel OKs $214 million in stimulus projects

Panel OKs $214 million in stimulus projects
Transportation » Road projects -- particularly in the Salt Lake Valley -- get the lion's share.
By Brandon Loomis
The Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake Tribune
Posted:02/25/2009 05:33:02 PM MST
The Utah Transportation Commission will funnel about $214 million in federal economic-recovery dollars in coming months to roads, bridges, buses, trains, sidewalks and trails all over the state.
So where are all that steel, asphalt and concrete bound?
On Wednesday, the commission approved plans for the spending, with most of the money -- $143 million -- going to state highways, as dedicated by Congress.
The commission also signed off on $46 million in projects proposed by the Wasatch Front Regional Council and Mountainland Association of Governments for the big urban centers. Another $18 million will flow to smaller population areas, and more than $6 million will go to sidewalk safety and disabled-access improvements.
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State highways » The $143 million going to the Utah Department of Transportation will spread across the state -- from $1.3 million to replace the chip seal on U.S. 89 in Box Elder County to $3.8 million to rebuild Washington County's Valley View Bridge several years after flood damage.
UDOT's list includes a few $3 million bridge replacements on Interstate 80 in Salt Lake and Summit counties, and several $1.6 million bridges around Payson. Those projects reflect the agency's ability to get fixer-uppers moving faster than new roads or lanes that require more bureaucratic preparation.
"Our goal is 90 days" to start most stimulus work, UDOT Assistant Director Carlos Braceras said. In fact, half the state highways portion of the money must be spent within 120 days or Utah will have to give back part of its allotment. The local and metropolitan organizations have the full fiscal year to spend their allotments.
UDOT's share also will fund a few highway expansions, notably $15 million each for auxiliary lanes and improved interchanges from 7200 South to 9000 South in Salt Lake County, more lanes on Syracuse Road in Davis County and more lanes on U.S. Highway 6 in east-central Utah.
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Metro areas » The Wasatch Front Regional Council has the next-biggest pot of cash. It will buy pavement, buses and train repairs from Salt Lake County to Weber County.
The council will put $10.5 million into a new interchange at 6200 South and Interstate 215, possibly using continuous-flow traffic, said council Deputy Director Doug Hattery.
"At night," he said, "that really backs up traffic [on I-215]."
The council's list also steers $40 million to the Utah Transit Authority to renovate an old Jordan River warehouse south of 2100 South into a light-rail repair center along the new West Valley City TRAX line. Another $10 million goes to new buses, partly to serve new express routes to Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain.
The list does not include some of Salt Lake City's priorities, including a downtown streetcar circulator or another streetcar linking Sugar House to TRAX in South Salt Lake. That doesn't mean Mayor Ralph Becker won't get those projects with stimulus dollars, Hattery said, but he will have to vie with other cities for a piece of $1.5 billion in discretionary funds that U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood can dole out.
Mountainland, in the Provo area, plans to use more than $5 million on trails -- a historic rail trail in Lehi and one in American Fork -- and $3.6 million to widen the highway out of the mouth of Provo Canyon, among other projects.
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Small towns » Coalville will collect more than $1 million for a Main Street project, Tooele will snag the same for State Road 112, and Emery County will get $2.2 million for a long-awaited reconstruction of a road to Goblin Valley State Park.
In Cache Valley, the state will tap part of its share to build a $2.8 million road along 100 East from Logan to Providence, and the area's transit agency will get $1.7 million to buy hybrid-electric buses.