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Show By Jack Wallis jZ ) We are happy to hear that the Utah Department of Transportation has approved $2.5 million for resurfacing U.S. Highway 40 from Vernal to Jensen. This section of highway is in bad shape because it has started to break up. This section has not been resurfaced for a long time and it is now the main transportation link for the construction of the Bonanza Power Plant. The recent heavy truck traffic has been hard on this section of highway. When the Red Wash highway being built by Uintah County directly to Bonanza is finished this fall, traffic on East U.S. 40 will be relieved to some extent. But the critical problem faced with the increased traffic to the Bonanza Power Plant and the White River Shale Oil Company federal tracts is the congestion through the industrial area from Vernal City limits to the Davis collector highway leaving Highway 40. This section of highway needs to be improved and widened to four lanes with curb and gutter on both sides. With nearly 200 industrial businesses along this two miles of highway it is becoming a traffic bottle-neck. Most of these industrial businesses depend on large heavy truck units that carry heavy loads. They are slow to accelerate as they leave and enter their place of business. With the present two-lane highway there is no way for traffic to get around a slow-moving vehicle. Uintah County has been working with the UDOT in an effort to aiden east Highway 40 that will connect onto the new Red Wash highway. UDOT has been hard-pressed for funds so as an alternate it has been suggested that impact mitigation funds from energy development sources be used for the highway widening project. But the next problem is that most of this section of highway has just been jerked out of county jurisdiction and placed into the newly incorporated Naples City. Uintah County officials say it is now Naples City's responsibility to widen this section of U.S. 40 to take care of the industrial traffic bottle-neck. We don't particularly care whether UDOT, Vernal City, Uintah County or Naples City gets credit for getting the project funded, someone has got to do it. None of these four entities seem to have the available funding to take on this project. About the only hope is that someone can get together and work out an arrangement where impact funds can be generated for this important highway project. The new Red Wash highway is being built as a cost of over $12 million using impact funds from the state and Deseret Generation and Transmission Cooperative. White River Shale Oil Co. is contributing funds for the road from Bonanza to the oil shale plant site on tracts U-a and U-b. Mitigation impact funds should also be sought for widening Highway 40 west to the city limits to four lanes of traffic. With the new businesses being constructed along this area a traffic congestion is being created. The third vital project essential to the movement of vehicular traffic through the Ashley Valley is a southern truck bypass. Plans should be immediately started to obtain property and rights-of-way for a truck bypass that would cut off at near the scenic overlook area at the west approach into Ashley Valley and connect back onto Highway 40 at the county collector highway somewhere in the Davis area. This bypass artery could follow the Highline canal along Asphalt Ridge and then cut through Davis back to eastbound U.S. 40. Probably the most difficult right-of-way purchase will be through the Davis area because of all the building activity in this area. Several years ago it probably would have been no problem to get a new wide highway alignment through the Davis area. But now it will present a problem and the longer the wait, the more difficult it will become. Highway transportation is one of the most critical needs for Ashley Valley if its population is going to double in the next ten years as some predictions say. Widening both approaches into Vernal City and providing an adequate truck bypass are essential to the safety and comfort of everyone who must move about on our highway systems to carry out their business and get from home to work. Our main highway arteries should be given number one priority in receiving impact mitigation funding for stresses and demands on existing roads and highways caused by an increasing population. We hope these projects can soon get going. |