Scary North Ogden Divide road ‘a necessary evil’
Vehicles travel on North Ogden Canyon Road in the North Ogden Divide on Tuesday, December 29, 2015.
FIlE PHOTO- Senator Allen Christensen reads through an information packet during the first day of the 2013 legislative Session Monday, January 28, 2013 at the Capitol in Salt lake City, Utah.
Vehicles travel on North Ogden Canyon Road in the North Ogden Divide on Tuesday, December 29, 2015.
NORTH OGDEN — The North Ogden Canyon Road, better known to locals as “the divide,” is a 7-mile serpentine strip of pavement that provides a vital link between North Ogden and the Eden-Huntsville area.
When rock slides or construction closes State Road 39 through Ogden Canyon a few miles to the south, the divide is the quickest way for drivers to travel between the Ogden Valley and the lower parts of northern Weber County.
But the road presents a quandary for Weber County drivers, who sometimes have no choice other than to take the perilous route. It is also a burden for transportation authorities — there doesn’t seem to be a solution to the safety hazards, at a time when the population is growing and the route will continue to get more and more traffic.
The road, maintained by the county, always has been dangerous, and because of the tangled topography it probably will remain so, said state Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden.
“I’ve used it for over 60 years,” Christensen said in a phone interview. “It’s one of those necessary evils. It is a dangerous road but there is very little alternative — it’s Trappers Loop, Ogden Canyon or the North Ogden divide” — for access in and out of the upper valley.
Christensen said his best friend’s daughter was killed in a crash off the road a few years ago. “There’s always somebody going off it.”
The senator said officials have studied options for making parts of the divide road safer. This year, he said, more guardrails were added in places.
Reconstruction could be possible in theory, he said, but it probably is not feasible.
“The trouble with the road is, one side is cliff and the other side is cliff,” Christensen said. “At the dangerous places you’ve got to remove a thousand feet of cliff. Then you would have rocks falling on top of the road.”
As the area has grown, use of the divide road has changed.
Christensen recalled the road wasn’t even paved and was closed over the winter when he was young. Now it’s maintained year around, unless there’s an avalanche that causes a closure for a day or two.
“It’s an interesting road,” he said. “I’ve personally taken people across there driving at reasonable speeds, and it scares the daylights out of them.”
More guardrails could be added, but safety on the road will always depend a lot on safe driving, Christensen said.
“If you don’t, you’re dead. You stay awake driving that road, whether for another car or a boulder. Very few people will be driving fast. They’ll be creeping along.”
• RELATED: Woman in SUV survives plunge off snowy mountain road
Sarah Crenshaw of North Ogden, who survived her SUV’s 100-yard plunge off the divide road Dec. 20, echoed the need for caution in good weather or bad. She drives the road almost every day.
“I almost got hit yesterday coming home,” she said, about a week after the Dec. 20 crash. “I’m already traumatized, and here comes this Ford Explorer at the hairpin turn on the Eden side, just flying up behind me tailgating.”
The Ford driver passed her and narrowly avoided colliding with an oncoming car, Crenshaw said.
People speeding or drinking are risking their lives on the divide, she said. “And it is not OK to pass people on the divide.”
Vic Saunders, the Utah Department of Transportation’s Region 1 spokesman, said Wednesday, Jan. 6 the state has no role in operation or maintenance of the divide road.
“It’s 100 percent county-operated,” Saunders said. “There was a project done up there to do some barriers and guardrails, and the money was federal, but our only role was to feed that money to the county.”
“It is very steep and has very steep grades, especially the part on the east side, and that is concerning,” Saunders said. “And I know they always look for ways to mitigate that.”
Holin Wilbanks, Weber County spokeswoman, said the divide road is always a concern.
“We have no immediate plans” for work on the road, Wilbanks said. “We do agree it is a high-adventure road.”
You can reach Mark Shenefelt at mshenefelt@standard.net or 801 625-4224.