OCR Text |
Show Release of Highway Funds Means Projects forSE Utah A number of Interstate Inter-state Highway projects in Southeastern Utah could be constructed beginning ; this summer with funds released in Washington last week by President Gerald Ford. Sam Taylor, member of the State Road Commission Commis-sion for Eastern Utah, stated that the current Interstate construction budget of $21 million will probably be boosted to nearly $80 million, which ; when combined with a number of other construction con-struction budgets could give Utah its biggest highway high-way construction year in history. One major roadblock to the construction program a lack of matching money mo-ney on the part of the State of Utah appeared appear-ed to be cleared Tuesday "afternoon when the Appropriations Ap-propriations Subcommittee Subcommit-tee for Transportation of the Utah Legislature voted vot-ed unanimously to appropriate appro-priate a total of $3.6 million mil-lion out of the current general fund surplus to help the Highway Department Depart-ment match the newly released re-leased federal funds. Mr. Taylor stated that with (other matching money already al-ready in hand, the $3.6 m million additional would enable the State to build some $79.6 million new Interstate roads in the next fiscal year. Projects in this area which will be advertised for construction early in the year include the Crescent Cres-cent Junction interchange and two Interstate projects pro-jects between Crescent Junction and Green River, totaling around $6 million. mil-lion. Another big project which is ready to go is the long stretch from the top of Salina Canyon eastward east-ward to existing Interstate Inter-state 70 at Fremont Junction. Junc-tion. This project would cost in excess of $10 million. Jit addition, the missing westbound lanes of Interstate Inter-state 70 across the San Rafael Swell will be included in-cluded in the big funding package. President Ford released releas-ed a total of $2 billion nationally last Wednesday which had been impounded impound-ed by executive order for a number of years. Since the release was designed to stimulate employment, however, he stated that all projects had to be under un-der contract by the first of July of this year. Utah is in a favorable position to get more than its usual us-ual share of the federal money, since many projects pro-jects have been totally designed and are ready to be bid. A good deal of the federal money will be issued on a first come, first served basis. Other highway projects in Eastern Utah now underway un-derway include the grading grad-ing and draining of the remaining unpaved portion por-tion of Highway 95 in San Juan County. Mr. Taylor stated that an application ap-plication was being submitted sub-mitted to Washington for $2 million plus to pave that section as soon as the current grading contract con-tract --- being done by Lowdermilk Construction Co. of Price is completed com-pleted this spring. Work on the project is ahead of schedule. "We are encouraged en-couraged that our request for the paving money will be approved from the Land and Water Conservation Conser-vation Fund," he said. Another project underway under-way is the reconstruction of Highway 50 between Wellington and Price. The job is being done by L. A. .Young Construction. One section of Interstate Inter-state completed, but not yet opened, that which bypasses Thompson, will probably be opened later this week. Commissioner Commission-er Taylor, Director of Highways Blaine J. Kay and District Engineer James Deaton toured the project Wednesday afternoon after-noon prior to announcing the opening. |