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Show Interstate Bypass Plans Set by Road Department Immediate Plans Stymied by Funds Reduction The Utah State Hlghwav Department De-partment in this issue of the Iron County Record releases a map showing the general tentative tenta-tive routing for the Interstate through the community. This is Interstate Route 15, that bisects the sate from north to south. Officials of the highway department de-partment pointed out that this is only the general alignment The detailed plan which will show right of way requirements will have to be prepared to indicate in-dicate actual needs for property. proper-ty. This will await the setting up of funds for the project The detailed design will show the routing In detail by actual footage. foot-age. It will also show the property prop-erty that will be involved for construction of the Interstate. This will take some time to work 0"t, engineer sy, and the work on drawing up this design will await the allocation for funds for the project Reduced Funds State officials from the highway high-way department have pointed out that this year the federal government cut back funds to the states for the Interstate system. sys-tem. This reduction amounted to almost one-third of Utah's allocation. al-location. The federal government pays 95 of the cost including right of way and construction on the Interstate system. All programming pro-gramming of work on the freeway free-way -in the state is subject to the approval of the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads. At the present no definite date has been established estab-lished for commencing work on the Cedar City stretch, officials report . According to Earl A. Johnson, district engineer for the State Highway Department the route through the community will require re-quire approximately 240 feet This will be the actual width needed for the freeway from fence line to fence line. At railroad rail-road or highway crossings and at Interchanges more property will be needed, Mr. Johnson says. At a recent meeting held by the Road Commission In Cedar City, it was agreed that a map should be furnished the city of the route. This has been presented to city officials who now have it on file. The map shows an onnrnvlmnte 400 foot swath through the community for the freeway. When actual plans are Completed, the right of way needs will be considerably less than this. The map was furnished furnish-ed to the city in order for it to handle details of planning and zoning for the city, and to give them the general routing for the highway. Public Hearing A hearing was held In Cedar City on December of 1957 at which the state's proposal .for the routing was discussed. At the meeting, official of the city and county, as well as the citizens citi-zens of the area, were permlted to present their ideas of the proposal. pro-posal. This was made a matter of public rword, and transcripts of the hearing were printed. The (Continued on Page Two) INTERSTATE HIGHWAY BYPASS I . (Continued from Front Page) highway department ' presented two proposals lor tje routing. These were aligned on the east n2 uo Mo rrf thA community. As a result of data presented at .'he hearing, tho State Highway L'"f irtmcnt made a detailed 8tuc?y of a possible route to the west of thelclty. , . The ita.te Road Commission, which comprises the five-man polic making group, studied the transcript of the hearing as well UC -plrinor'o findlnva of th route west of the city. At a meeting meet-ing in April of 1958 they adopted the following resolution: "Resolved, "Re-solved, that after considering evi dence presented at the official hearing at Cedar City, Utah on December 5, 1957, and after complete com-plete reappraisal ; of the problems,' prob-lems,' and" taking" 'into' account the costs of the' different routes, the cost benefit ratios and service to Cedar City -area, as well as throtich traffic' that the 13th West Route In Cedar City, as presented pre-sented at 'he bearing, be dcslg-nated dcslg-nated as the general location of the Interstate route." This was subject to the review of the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads who has since approved the general routing. rout-ing. Engineers have pointed out that when the final design is' completed, It is also subject to final approval of the Bureau of Public Roads before purchase of right of way and construction can commence. This means, that changes could be made on the number of Interchanges as well as type and size. Other criteria established by the federal government gov-ernment could affect details of the plans before final construction. |