New 4-Lane Road From I-70 To Vernal???

[thenetwork]

I was in Moab the other day and while I was speaking to some locals at one of the info centers there, it was mentioned that there was some effort underway on getting a new direct 4-lane road/expressway built which would connect I-70 to US-40 in Vernal.  They said that this proposed road would save about 1-2 hours driving time via US-191/Price to the west or via CO-139/Rangely, CO to the east.

They also said that this is necessitated because of the gas & oil boom that is well underway in Vernal.  Could this also mean a relocated US-191 from Crescent Junction in the future??

I have poked around the internet, and found this article:  http://www.moabtimes.com/view/full_story/25384293/article-Transportation-district-commits-$10-000-to-Book-Cliffs-corridor-study?instance=home_news_1st_left 

Anyone else hearing anything about this?

[andy3175]

I found this:

http://www.ubmedia.biz/vernal/news/article_f254a9ea-b91c-11e3-bbac-001a4bcf887a.html

Grand County Council Chairperson A. Lynn Jackson has sent a letter of inquiry to the Uintah County commission proposing a study of a Book Cliffs transportation route. In a letter dated March 19, the council proposes a feasibility study to improve a transportation route from Thompson Springs on I-70 north to Uintah County. Grand County is hoping to develop access to Anadarko Petroleum's Book Cliffs 96,000-acre block for oil and gas development on State Institutional Trust Lands Administration lands.

"Our primary county population center of Moab has limited access to this remote SITLA land due to terrain and a poorly developed and maintained transportation system"  writes Jackson. Anadarko's SITLA lease was approved last year and a joint agreement with Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, state and industry has deferred development of sensitive lands, while allowing development to continue. The proposed route is an unimproved road through Sego Canyon which runs for roughly 15 miles before ending at the boundary of Northern Ute Tribe lands. It dead ends about 7 or 8 miles shy of the county line where there are several dirt roads that extend south from Uintah County into Grand County. Response from Uintah County commissioners was immediate and positive.
Commissioner Mike McKee said that this is not the first time as "20 years ago there was a proposed Book Cliffs Highway floated, but this is not the same thing,"  he said.

Back then, the public outcry was largely negative, and more recently similar sentiments arose during the Seep Ridge Road paving project. Still, McKee says this proposal is different because the route would be more than a hydrocarbon-highway.
He hopes the public will keep an open mind "as it could be a valuable travel and tourism road for Grand, Uintah and Daggett Counties."  Commissioners from both counties, SITLA and the Uintah Transportation Special Services District will meet soon for face to face talks. Traveling on paved roads in southern Uintah county "could cut mileage between Moab and Vernal from 230 miles to perhaps 160 miles,"  wrote Jackson. Both commissioners credit the Seven County Eastern Utah Economic Development Coalition as opening the door for cooperation on a possible transportation plan. Jackson said that a Book Cliffs access has been debated for decades, but the genesis of this proposal comes from Rep Rob Bishop's HR 1459 public lands bill. "We are possibly creating a very large wilderness area in the Book Cliffs, which would preclude any more access development, so before we do that, we should look at all our options,"  said Jackson. Jackson emphasized that no decision has been made to build a road rather these are just talks, at this point. "We will meet next week with the commissioners and go from there,"  he said. Uintah and Duchense Counties completed an energy and transportation study of the Uintah Basin through the Utah Department of Transportation in Feb. 2013. According to Muriel Xochimitl, UDOT spokesperson, "the study found that $35 billion in economic benefit over a 30-year projection period."
That study did not include a possible southern travel route into Grand County, and will have to be amended to include the possibility.

[andy3175]

And another one:

http://www.moabsunnews.com/news/article_a2c63480-b4f7-11e3-9822-001a4bcf6878.html

The Grand County Council riled some citizens at its meeting on Tuesday, March 18, when it approved a motion to send Uintah County a letter proposing collaborating on two feasibility studies analyzing a potential road through Sego Canyon in the Book Cliffs.

Currently, an unsurfaced, 15-mile-long road extends north from I-70 at Thompson Springs through Sego Canyon to the southern end of the State and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) land block. The road ends where it reaches a one-mile section of Native American lands at the top of Sego Canyon. "Grand County would like to investigate the feasibility of improving transportation in this area between the SITLA block and the I-70/railway corridor, and perhaps additional routes between our counties,"  according to the letter, signed by council chair Lynn Jackson. "If this concept is of interest to (Uintah County) we would be glad to engage in additional discussions and develop more tangible plans."  

The idea of a paved highway connecting Uintah and Grand County through the Book Cliffs has been raised several times in Moab's past, beginning the late 1980s and as recently as 2007, meeting strong opposition each time. Many of the people who had gathered to hear the discussion expressed anger after the motion passed.

"It's a sad day... here we go again,"  resident Kiley Miller said. "The Book Cliffs highway is under consideration after so many times that it's come up in front of the county and the people have overwhelmingly spoken in the past that we do not want this."

"I think this issue is really representational of the fact that our community is not well-represented within our council and I think that's very unfortunate,"  resident Emily Stock said. "I'm looking forward to a new election year."

Jackson told the crowd gathered in the Council Chambers that the council had discussed the concept of the road informally.

"As we started working on Congressmen Bishop's public lands bill process and we started looking at the potential of creating a large wilderness area in the Book Cliffs, we recognized that if we proceeded in creating a large block of wilderness, that an opportunity somewhere down the road for any kind of enhanced transportation would be gone,"  Jackson said.

The public lands bill is Rep. Rob Bishop's (R-Utah) attempt to resolve public lands conflicts–such as that between advocates for oil and gas development and advocates for wilderness designations–with compromise within rural eastern Utah counties. A Council subcommittee has been preparing recommendations for land designation in Grand County.

To keep a development opportunity viable, the council would like to identify, in the public lands bill, a corridor along Sego Canyon where an enhanced road or pipeline could potentially be built.

The impetus for enhancing transportation comes from the Eastern Utah Economic Coalition, an organization of the seven eastern Utah rural counties.

"A big part of their economy is the extraction industry, especially in Uintah and Duchesne,"  said Ken Davey, the City of Moab economic-development specialist. "They were suggesting ways they could get more oil and gas via truck or pipeline down to the railroad."

Upgrading the route through Sego Canyon could cut mileage between Moab and Vernal from 230 to about 160 miles.

"There have been some of suggestions it could mean lots of money to Grand County,"  Jackson told the crowd gathered in the Council Chambers. "If hydrocarbons were hauled down Sego Canyon on a road the county owned, we could charge a fee. Basically it's a toll road. It could be millions of dollars for this county."

The issue of needed revenue makes the idea of the road all the more difficult for some.

"When you've sat through a County budgeting process–or eight of them like I have–you really do see there are many needs they're trying to balance that require money,"  said Audrey Graham, who sat on the County Council from 2004 through 2012.

"Many of the people in that County Council room (on March 18) would probably be happier with having their taxes raised than they would be with having the Book Cliffs road happen, and that's kind of the place this puts us. When we don't have more economic development, then we're in the position of needing to raise taxes."

Several citizens spoke publicly during the meeting, expressing their concerns about a road's potential impact on cultural artifacts and the environment.

"My concern is basically about the disturbance on the archeological sites that are in Sego Canyon,"  Michael Peck said. "I think we need to make sure that we act appropriately toward another sovereign nation's material property."

"My understanding is there is more hydrocarbon in the Book Cliffs than has burned in the history of mankind,"  Dave Erley said. "So if we really go full bore in developing those resources we're basically condemning future generations to that decision of (putting) twice as much carbon out there."

Jackson thanked Erley for his comment, but said he believes the hydrocarbons in Uintah Basin are going to be developed regardless of what Grand County does.

"Those resources are going to be developed by decisions and factors far beyond our control,"  Jackson said.

Davey said Uintah and Duchesne counties are looking at ways to benefit their economies. One aspect of that is creating a more streamlined route for transporting hydrocarbons from the Uintah Basin to the rail line. There are two possible routes where the rail line can be accessed: one through Grand County to the Thompson or Crescent Junction area, and one through Price.

"They prefer the one that goes through Grand County because it's shorter, it's easier to design, it has less impact on the land than the route that would go to Price,"  Davey said. "But the fact is that if Grand County doesn't go along with looking at a study like this, they will choose the route to Price."

Funding for the road would come from either the state or, "in some cases, from the companies that would be interested in it,"  Davey said. It also might provide local employment opportunities with higher-paying jobs in the extraction industry.

"We really don't know the economic potential, so that's one of the studies we would do,"  Davey said.

In its letter, the council proposed two studies: one to analyze the potential economic benefits of such a road for Grand County and the other to "provide a reconnaissance-level analysis of potential routes."

Grand County attorney Andrew Fitzgerald recommend the council revise its letter with more specific wording regarding the studies.

"I assume, if Uintah County is interested, they'll pick whoever does the study,"  Fitzgerald said. "I think this county wants to be able to have some controls about how broad their study will be, what they'll look at–is the group doing the study an energy type group? And I think the county will want to make sure a bias doesn't find its way into these studies."

The council agreed to Fitzgerald's recommendations and, after changing some wording in the letter, approved the motion to send the revised letter to Uintah county with a 7-0 vote.

"Before people get their shorts too bunched up about this, we're just talking about a study,"  Jackson told the disgruntled citizens in attendance. "No decisions are being made here. No decision will be made in the land bill about whether a road will or will not be built."

© 2014 Moab Sun News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[andy3175]

And another one. It appears that there is a difference of opinion on this road depending on your political point of view (go figure).

http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/news-road-to-nowhere-utahandrsquos-oil-boom-could-mean-a-highway-in-the-wilderness/Content?oid=2127863

The oil boom in Utah's Dinosaur Country could push a highway through one of last pieces of wilderness in the state.

The idea of paving a road through the Book Cliffs for the oil industry was rejected once 20 years ago. But it's back on the table thanks to a booming Uintah County energy business and a little help from the Utah Legislature.

Money slipped last month into the new state budget should be enough to get the road project back on the drawing table, said Uintah County Commissioner Dave Haslem. He believes paving the existing Seep Ridge Road through the Book Cliffs is necessary if companies hoping to develop the area's natural gas, tar sands and oil shale are to make a profit.

"We had one oil tar sand company tell us they plan on 150 trailers per day on the road by the end of summer,"  Haslem says. "I don't know what to believe, but you have to plan for something."

Already, heavy equipment using the existing gravel Seep Ridge Road is terrifying road crews by careening on two wheels down the back of the Book Cliffs said Bob Greenberg, a councilman from neighboring Grand County.

The Utah Legislature began its 2008 session hoping to fund many new roads out of a large budget surplus. But when that surplus dried up, so did funding for most road projects. The final budget included little cash for new roads. Seep Ridge Road was one of the few exceptions.

Sen. Kevin VanTassell, R-Vernal, who represents much of northeast Utah, got a $2 million appropriation for Seep Ridge Road via his seat on an appropriations committee. The money will be added to about $2 million put up by Uintah County and a $1 million pledge from industry to make up the estimated cost of preparing an environmental-impact statement and preliminary engineering drawings for an improved road.

The Uintah County Commission hopes to start right away. An improved Seep Ridge Road would run from Vernal south to Interstate-70 where oil and gas could continue by freeway or connect with rail. That means a generation-old fight is likely to start all over again.

The Book Cliffs are among the most inaccessible places in Utah, if not the entire lower 48 states. That, of course, is why wilderness advocates don't want a highway running through them.

The area is home to Utah's largest wildlife populations. Plants near Seep Ridge Road were recently proposed for threatened status. A coalition of environmental groups has asked Congress to give portions of the Book Cliffs federal wilderness designation.

Bill Hedden, a former Grand County councilman who now directs the Grand Canyon Trust, calls the re-emergence of the Book Cliffs highway "proof that no truly terrible idea ever goes away."

The highway nearly became a reality in the late-1980s. The Uintah and Grand county commissions had nearly completed environmental studies required to start road graders when a rebellion stopped the road in its tracks.

Opponents of the project from Grand County were so upset about their county commissioners going along with the road that, in 1992, they petitioned to change the county's form of government. County commissioners who supported the road were thrown out in favor of a new county council, including Hedden. The new council moved money earmarked for the road to a hospital that otherwise would have closed.

Hedden says the argument over the Book Cliffs highway is larger even than the oil companies. Seep Ridge Road was once recommended for paving by a state tourism board as a "scenic road"  for tourists to move between red-rock country and Yellowstone. But in reality, it's always been about stopping wilderness, he says.

For some "sagebrush rebellion"  politicians, the chief benefit of the highway is making it difficult to declare the Book Cliffs federal wilderness. But the idea has other problems, Hedden says. The project would have eaten up all county mineral lease money in the 1980s. It would be at least as expensive today and literally built on shifting sands. "It's the worst of the gumbo in this part of the world,"  Hedden says.

But Uintah County politicians say they have no choice but to make some concession to industrial development. The proposed oil road would be a shortcut from the route now used by most oil trucks leaving the Book Cliffs–north to Highway 40, then on that two-lane road to Interstate-80, past Park City to refineries in Salt Lake City. Uintah County Commissioner Haslem says commissioners are getting pressure from Wasatch County politicians who don't like the heavy trucks on their highways.

Grand County's Greenberg says there is no doubt that impacts from the oil industry need to be addressed. "You can't spit without hitting a drill rig or a compressor station,"  he says.

Still, the oil boom in northeast Utah won't last forever, Greenberg adds. "It's a 20- 30-year bubble,"  he says. "You have to be careful not to sell our birthright for short-term gain."

[AplikowskiTheMinnesotan]

People seriously take US 191 north of I-70? I'm mean I get why people in southern Utah do because of the national parks, but they're seriously going to build a corridor to Vernal? I'm looking at it on the map, and if they're seriously going to build a new corridor from I-70 to Vernal, that's pretty freaking desolate. I'm aware that I-70 is very desolate from Salina to Green River, but I-70 is a needed corridor for travelers heading to the Great Plains and Denver. But then again, when there's oil, everyone flocks to wherever it is. Like California used to be a desert wasteland, but now EVERYONE wants to go there. And then North Dakota was a backwater agricultural states, but now its infrastructure has boomed. So, I guess I'll just have to see ahead in the future.

[triplemultiplex]

Just for clarity, none of these articles mention a "four-lane" road.  They all speak of paving and modernizing an existing road.
(A southern extension of UT 88?)

[Rover_0]

Just for clarity, none of these articles mention a "four-lane" road.  They all speak of paving and modernizing an existing road.
(A southern extension of UT 88?)

That's what I was thinking, but if it connects I-70 and US-40, it's hard for me to imagine it not becoming an eventual US-191 reroute.

[thenetwork]

I had gotten the word of the road possibly being "four-lane" by a representative of the Moab Chamber of Commerce.  There is no doubt that with increased truck traffic on some of the longer grades that there will need to be an extra lane for passing on at least parts of the proposed corridor.

If the road was built as more than just a paved "county road", it would make sense to reroute US-191 East of Crescent Junction along I-70 to the new road.  US-191 is an odd, mostly duplexed route along US-6 and US-40 and it would help reduce a little bit of traffic along the busy US-6 corridor between Green River and Helper.

The part of current US-191 between Helper and Duchesne could be renumbered as a state highway.

[andy3175]

Just for clarity, none of these articles mention a "four-lane" road.  They all speak of paving and modernizing an existing road.
(A southern extension of UT 88?)

Agreed. All I could find was what I'd posted above. It seems like a two-lane road would be a logical place to start, but who knows if even that would pass environmental muster given the terrain proposed for the new two-lane road.

[andy3175]

The part of current US-191 between Helper and Duchesne could be renumbered as a state highway.

Prior to the creation of US 191 in 1981, that segment was signed as Utah SR 33.

[Rover_0]

The part of current US-191 between Helper and Duchesne could be renumbered as a state highway.

Prior to the creation of US 191 in 1981, that segment was signed as Utah SR 33.

Bring back SR-33!



(What kind of specs would its shields have?)

[triplemultiplex]

I had gotten the word of the road possibly being "four-lane" by a representative of the Moab Chamber of Commerce.

Ah that makes sense then.  CofC people usually come out of the sales and marketing fields and as such have no real clue about roads.  They know branding.  At least that was my experience working with CofC's occasionally at a previous job.

[andy3175]

More on this proposal, now called the "National Parks Highway" by some (12/15/2014):

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/1924115-156/vision-for-national-parks-highway-has

For fellow legislators touring the remote Book Cliffs, Sen. Kevin Van Tassell, R-Vernal, draws an imaginary map on his hand to outline a dream that he says could drive more tourists into the Uinta Basin and Utah.

"You could call it the national parks highway," he says.

"It would start at Yellowstone and go to Grand Teton, Flaming Gorge, Dinosaur, the Book Cliffs, Arches, Canyonlands and the Four Corners area," with its Hovenweep and Natural Bridges national monuments, he says tracing a straight line down his hand.

The road could also extend straight through Arizona to Canyon De Chelly National Monument and Petrified Forest National Park. "There's not a lot of places where national parks line up like that on one road. Think of the attraction," Van Tassell says.

Almost all the pieces are in place for such a national parks highway, he adds, except one big hole -- a 40-mile stretch of challenging (and controversial) pavement in a rugged part of Grand County in the Books Cliffs.

Environmentalists worry a paved road there could damage proposed wilderness areas and they see the national parks highway proposal as a ruse to allow subsidizing oil companies with a road that would mostly benefit them.

"The largest uninterrupted wilderness area in the United States is the Book Cliffs area. And roads that even touch that area are going to impact it greatly," said Mary McGann, a newly elected Grand County Council member.

The national parks highway idea has other obstacles, too. It would require persuading state and federal agencies to take over a new $60 million Uintah County highway (which is giving impetus to talk about a road connecting parks), and renumber other routes into one uniformly named highway.

"If we finish the road, it should be U.S. 191," which is already the designation for most of the route, Van Tassell says. His envisioned changes would include erasing the U.S. 191 designation where it veers too far from national parks, such as in Indian Canyon between Price and Duchesne.

Van Tassell's tour covered all 45 miles of the newly paved Seep Ridge Road, built by Uintah County with $60 million from community impact funds from oil and gas royalties. It stretches from south of Ouray to the Grand County line.

The new county road is wider and nicer than most other federal and state highways in the Uinta Basin, including the major U.S. 40 and U.S. 191. It has 15 miles of climbing or passing lanes.

"We overbuilt Seep Ridge Road," Van Tassell says, to meet federal and state road standards in hopes that they will take it over someday as a key part of the national parks highway. In exchange, the county could take over other more minor state routes.

Before Seep Ridge was paved, traveling the old shale-covered road there to the Grand County line took 4.5 hours from Vernal. Now it takes 90 minutes, says Uintah County Commissioner Mark Raymond.

Van Tassell adds that whenever the county graded the old unpaved road, it tended to sharpen the shale there, turning it almost into arrow points. "It was a good day if you only got one flat tire instead of two."

Carlos Braceras, executive director of the Utah Department of Transportation, acknowledges, "It's a nice looking road." But he adds, "It sticks out there a bit, doesn't it – that big wide road" with little traffic now. A recent study found that annual daily traffic on the road last June was only 117 vehicles, 70 percent of them oil-field trucks.

Van Tassell says the road has helped the oil and gas industry to service its myriad wells in the area, and also truck out some crude oil. Experimental oil shale and oil sands mines are also there, and the road is key to the industry if they start producing large amounts.

Finishing the 40 miles to Interstate 70 through Grand County could provide a shorter route to the railroad and freeway to ship crude oil to refineries.

[triplemultiplex]

So they're going to "I-69" this road then.  In terms of getting money to build an unneeded highway by marketing it as some grander plan.

Next they'll start adding branches and spurs of the "National Parks Highway" to get more votes in Congress. :lol

[US 41]

I don't think a 4 lane highway would really be necessary here. A new 2 lane highway from Red Wash (Uintah County) to Thompson Springs would most likely be good enough. The terrain looks pretty rough too. Building a 2 lane highway would be hard enough. I can see why a road was never built through here. Tolling the road if its ever built might not be a terrible idea.

EDIT: A new 2 lane road from Thompson Springs to Ouray (connecting to SR 88) would probably be better than connecting it to SR 45 in Red Wash.

[authenticroadgeek]

An expressway as in exits, (like an Interstate) or an expressway as in really busy road? (like University Parkway/SR-265 in Orem)

[NE2]

bump

[thenetwork]

An expressway as in exits, (like an Interstate) or an expressway as in really busy road? (like University Parkway/SR-265 in Orem)

Realistically, it would probably be similar in vein to the way US-191 is laid out between Moab and I-70:  Either 3 lanes with alternating passing lanes for the third lane and /or a four lane non-divided (no center turn lane) highway with extra turning lanes when necessary. 

US-191 going into Moab from I-70 is a nice, wide thoroughfare where I have never had any traffic issues on that stretch.  I don't see any reason to make the proposed highway any larger than what US-191 is.