Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Department of Transportation is marking some major milestones as it wraps up around a billion dollars in construction heading into 2025. UDOT's Director of Public Relations, John Gleason, said several of those projects were significant.
"As we continue to see all of the growth that we're experiencing here in Utah, it's important to make sure that people can get to where they're going safely and with as much convenience as possible," Gleason said.
The largest milestone by far was completing the first half of the West Davis Highway, connecting communities from West Point to Farmington to Interstate 15. The freeway took about a decade of planning and construction to finish, with cost estimated at $750 million. UDOT also upgraded and replaced about a hundred bridges around the state.
"The last couple of winters had been really hard on several of the bridges, especially out by the airport," Gleason explained. "There was a big concentration of them here in Salt Lake County."
As UDOT heads into 2025, the state agency is looking to start construction on another major undertaking: Linking dozens upon dozens of trailways statewide into a major transportation network.
"It's going to be an entire network, kind of like how the interstate system works right now," Gleason said. "And so if (people) want to walk, bike, use transit, we're improving all of those connections."
The Utah Trail Network has been in the planning stages for several years, including several public workshops. People can still attend two upcoming workshops, or reach out to UDOT to give feedback on its plans for the project.
