FARMINGTON -- While two neighboring cities continue to disagree on where a large interchange should be built for the West Davis Corridor, the Utah Department of Transportation is weighing the cost of each option.
If the West Davis Corridor gets built, it will include an interchange off Interstate 15 that connects to the road in Farmington and southern Kaysville.
The state will build the interchange at either Glovers Lane or Shepard Lane.
UDOT recently released an itemized list of all of the costs associated with each interchange option.
The Shepard Lane option, which would cut across northern Farmington, is the pricier of the two, coming in at about $168 million.
The Glovers Lane option, which loops around the western portion of Farmington, would cost about $133 million.
The Shepard Lane option would require more money for residential and commercial relocations and acquiring rights of way, while the Glovers Lane option would require more money to mitigate impacts to nearby wetlands and would drive up the cost of the actual road because of its circuitous route.
UDOT Project Manager Randy Jeffries said the Shepard Lane option also includes an additional $18.9 million local interchange on I-15 that will eventually be built by the state if the Glovers Lane option is selected and it's not a part of the West Davis Project.
UDOT Region One spokesman Vic Saunders said cost won't necessarily determine which option is selected.
"At this point, we're just trying to advance the study forward and determine what the best option of the two is," he said.
"Obviously, cost is a part of that, but we are going to select the option that serves the taxpayer and the motorist the best."
Kaysville has given its support to the Glovers Lane option, while Farmington has publicly endorsed the Shepard Lane option.
Kaysville Mayor Steve Hiatt said his city's biggest reason for choosing the Glovers Lane option is the number of residential impacts associated with it.
Farmington Mayor Scott Harbertson said his city likes the Shepard Lane option because it promotes economic viability within the city and doesn't bisect the city like the Glovers Lane option would.
Saunders said the two differing opinions will likely have little influence on the project's outcome.
"We definitely appreciate each city's input, and that input will be used and evaluated," he said. "But we aren't looking at what would be best for one individual city or another -- we're looking at what would be best for the entire region."
UDOT hopes to complete a draft environmental impact statement on the road in the summer. Once that is complete, UDOT will submit the report to the Federal Highway Administration.
A final route decision is expected in 2013.




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