Transportation

HUNTSVILLE — Outdoor recreation enthusiasts can get a head start on their Memorial Day activities — the Monte Cristo highway will open on Monday, nearly a week sooner than transportation officials expected.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and 82 other members of Congress are asking Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to make an official announcement that would keep air traffic control towers open at small airports across the nation.

The group, which is made up of both Republicans and Democrats, sent LaHood a letter Thursday, asking him to utilize a provision in the Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013 that would prevent the closure of 149 Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control towers, which includes the tower at the Ogden-Hinckley Airport.

EDEN — Road safety improvements to State Road 158 in Eden will begin today and continue for several weeks.

LAYTON — The state is planning to extend Antelope Drive within the next year, and residents of an east Layton neighborhood couldn’t be happier.

OGDEN — A public hearing on the 24th Street Interchange project has been pushed back a month.

The Utah Department of Transportation and Ogden city have been working on an environmental analysis of an “action alternative” that would put a full Interstate 15 interchange at 24th Street.

The action alternative includes improvements to other surface streets west of the freeway near the potential interchange.

CLEARFIELD — Despite winterlike weather conditions across much of the Top of Utah, spring is here, and that means work on local roads is starting to ramp up.

Phase 1 of the $70 million State Road 193 project in Clearfield has started between Center and Main streets, and the work brings with it some major impacts to the travelling public.

SR 193 will be extended from State Street on 700 South in Clearfield, then around the Freeport Center to 200 South and then west to 2000 West in Syracuse.

Beginning today, Main Street through Clearfield will close indefinitely everywhere north of 700 South. Utah Department of Transportation spokesman Vic Saunders said the north end of south Main Street will eventually be turned into a cul-de-sac to make way for a new overpass.

ROY — The Utah Department of Transportation will spend $28 million on improvements to Riverdale Road from about 1600 West to 1900 West, including work on bridge and freeway ramps.

UDOT Project Manager Randy Jefferies recently went over the improvement with the Roy City Council.

Most of the major construction work will start after July 1, the beginning of fiscal year 2014, with the road set for completion by Thanksgiving 2014. Purchasing right of way and working with business owners are now the priorities in preparing for the actual work. Jefferies said UDOT is keeping businesses in mind.