A Living Legacy
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No comments [ Add Comment ]By Mitch Shaw
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
See an interactive map with photos of the new Legacy Highway
WOODS CROSS -- The rubber has officially met the road.
The first vehicles hit the new and highly anticipated Legacy Parkway about 4:30 p.m. Saturday, shortly after Gov. Jon Huntsman dedicated the roadway.
The $685 million, 14-mile parkway is the south Davis segment of the larger Legacy Highway project, eventually envisioned to extend from Brigham City to Nephi.
"(Legacy) signifies a progressive way of thinking about transportation," Huntsman said. "With the FrontRunner commuter rail and this parkway and some of the other things we are doing transportation-wise, we are moving forward in a way that nobody would have guessed a generation earlier."
Huntsman and his black-and-chrome Harley Davidson motorcycle were the first to drive on the parkway after the official opening. Huntsman led a motorcade of motorcycles and vintage vehicles driven by transportation officials, employees of the Utah Department of Transportation and members of the Utah Highway Patrol.
"On a scale of one to 10, I think this is about a 12," Huntsman said shortly before hitting the fresh pavement. "It's truly a historic day for Utah."
Transportation officials predict 30 percent of I-15 traffic will move to the Parkway. Their hope is that Legacy, FrontRunner commuter rail and the expansion of I-15 will partner to combat Northern Utah's growing congestion problems.
UDOT began monitoring traffic on Legacy as soon as it opened. Spokesman Nile Easton said that with electronic transponders, officials will know exactly how much traffic the road carries. UDOT will release its first traffic count Tuesday afternoon.
"If our projections are correct, this is going to be huge for commuters in this region," Easton said.
To celebrate the historic opening, UDOT hosted a morning run, walk and bike ride on the corridor to raise money for the Hess Cancer Foundation, a Kaysville organization that provides financial assistance to families who lose a young child to cancer.
Easton said more than 1,300 people participated, with $75,000 raised for the charity.
UDOT also allowed Farmington residents to name the new interchange that will connect U.S. 89, Legacy and I-15.
Farmington residents Dawn Flynn and Kesley Clampitt both submitted the winning entry, dubbing the interchange, the "Wasatch Weave."
Clinton resident Jimmy Evans said he would use Legacy to drive to his work in Centerville.
"I-15 is a grind sometimes," he said. "It will be nice to have another option."
Even before I-15 was completed during the mid-1960s, leaders and planners in Davis County understood the need for an alternate highway route.
According to UDOT, the yet-to-be-built road was referred to as the West Davis Highway. In the late 1990s, it became the Legacy Parkway.
It was put on hold by five years of litigation that produced an unusual out-of-court settlement in 2006. Environmental groups called for a light touch for the freeway that crosses sensitive Great Salt Lake wetlands.
"If you really want to be specific and break things down, this is more than just a decade in the making," said UDOT spokesman Nile Easton. "Davis County has really been waiting for this road for more than 40 years."
Executive director John Njord said UDOT had committed to the Legislature that the project would be finished by October of this year, and the 22 months it has taken to build the road have been hectic.
"When we started this project, every hair in my head was black," said Njord, "Now there's a little gray in there. But we are glad we've finally made it -- I feel like I'm living in a dream right now."
Jeff Clyde, principal of W.W. Clyde & Co., one of the three construction teams that helped build the road, said many long hours were spent on the second largest UDOT project in history. (Salt Lake County's I-15 reconstruction is the biggest).
"You can now drive on it and see the finished product, but what you can't see is all the work that went into this," he said. "There were a lot of man-hours put in, a lot of overtime, and a lot of people working extremely hard to make this happen."
Remaining construction tasks, such as the widening of Parrish Lane between I-15 and 1250 West and landscaping for the roadway and trail system, will continue through the fall. A section of the trail will be blocked off for public safety while crews work on the landscaping.
"We still have some landscaping to do -- about 20,000 native plants and 2,600 trees to put in," Easton said. "So by next spring, all that landscaping will be taking root."
UDOT officials expect a multi-use trail system running the full length of the roadway, and a nature trail running on the west side of the parkway between Center Street in North Salt Lake and 500 South in Woods Cross to get heavy use.
"That's what's nice about this project," Easton said. "It's about more than moving just cars, it's about moving people."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Legacy Parkwayby the numbers
* $685 million -- Total budget for Legacy
* 56 -- New lane miles.
* 14 -- Miles the two lanes stretch from I-215 at 2100 North in North Salt Lake to the U.S. 89/ I-15 junction in Farmington.
* 30 -- Percent of Interstate 15 traffic Utah Department of Transportation expects will move to the parkway
* 4 -- Interchanges, I-215/2100 North in North Salt Lake; 500 South in Woods Cross; Parrish Lane in Centerville; U.S. 89/I-15 junction (Wasatch Weave) at Park Lane in Farmington.
* 16 -- New bridges constructed along the Legacy Parkway corridor.
* 2 -- Bridges at State Street and Glovers Lane in Farmington were extended to accommodate the Parkway.
* 10 -- Pedestrian trail bridges were built to safely separate the trail system from traffic on Legacy Parkway.
* 2,225 -- Acreage of the Legacy Nature Preserve
* 55 -- Posted speed limit on the Parkway with limitations on trucks with five or more axels (or more than 80,000 pounds).
* 3 -- Construction teams, including approximately 600 full-time workers, worked on the project.
* 1 million -- Man hours spent on the project
* 5.2 million -- Tons of fill material.
* 182,845 -- Cubic yards of concrete.
* 28.4 million -- Pounds of steel
* 20,000 -- Drought-tolerant native plants planted along the Parkway and trail system.
* 2,600 -- Shade trees planted to assist with visual screening and to minimize roadway noise
Source: Utah Department of Transportation
