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Show $2.2-Million Asked For Boulder-Grovcr Hiwav ,V The Utah Department of Transportation has submitted an application to the Federal Highway Administration for Federal Lands Highway Funds to construct a paved road from Boulder in Garfield County to Grover in Wayne County. The Federal Highway Act of 1976 appropriates $16 million from the Federal Highway Trust Fund during fiscal 1978 losiBtBnaasnsnEjjjBnaBBM for highway projects located on federally owned land from which the states receive no tax revenue. The decision as to which projects receive a share of the funds is completely at the discretion of the Federal Highway Administration UDOT officials are requesting $2,240,000 for fiscal 1978 to grade and drain 11.3 miles of the road from Oak Creek to the Dixie National Forest Boundary near Grover. The money would also be used to place a gravel base on an 8.5 mile section from Frisky Creek to Oak Creek which has already been graded and drained. In recent years, some nine miles of the road inside the Dixie National Forest have been graded and drained with Federal Off System Funds, Federal Aid Secondary Funds, and Garfield County's Collector Road Funds. If their first funding request is granted, UDOT officials plan in subsequent years to make FLU applications for $2,470,000 to surface 19.8 miles of the route from Frisky Creek to the Dixie National Forest boundary near Grover, and $1,940,000 to grade, drain and surface 6.9 miles of the road from the Dixie National Forest boundary near Boulder to Frisky Creek. Although most of the 30 mile long road is on U.S. Forest Service lands, about 3.1 miles is located on non-federal lands. The UDOT will have to come up with an estimated $830,000 in other funds to construct the nonfederal portion of the road. The Boulder to Grover Road is a vital part of the planned Golden Circle of scenic highways and will serve with U-95 as a link between the national parks and monuments in southeastern, central, and southwestern Utah. It will save tourists SO miles of travel between Capitol Reef National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park Motorists who follow the route between the two parks will have access to Boulder Mountain's campgrounds and lakes, Hell's Backbone, the Anasazi Indian Village State Historical Monument, the Burr Trail, the Calf Creek Recreation Area, the Escalante Petrified Forest State Reserve, Escalante Natural Bridge. Escalante Canyons, Phipps Arch, Maverick Arch, Bowington Arch, the Deer Creek Recreation Site. Kodachrome Basin and Grosvernor Arch. Timber harvesting and lumber production in the area will benefit. Boulder ranchers and farmers will have a more direct route to the Richfield-Salina markets, and coal deposits south and west of Escalante will be made more accessible. There are also several oil and gas leases north of Boulder, a producing oil field 30 miles from Escalante, and uranium claims in the Circle Cliffs which may be benefitted by the road The construction of the road will also give residents of Boulder, Utah a second all weather route to the outside world, should U-12, their onl other route, become impassible for any reason. |