Roy’s 5600 South upgrade plans getting firmer — $238M project to start in 2023
The 5600 South-1900 West intersection in Roy is pictured on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020.
This image shows the commercial land around the 5600 South and 1900 West intersection that might have to be acquired by the Utah Department of Transportation as part of planned improvements along the 5600 South corridor.
ROY — Plans to upgrade 5600 South in Roy are getting firmer and firmer.
The Utah Transportation Commission late last week approved moving forward with a slate of projects that includes the widening of the busy east-west roadway, an increasingly important link between growing Hooper and West Haven and Interstate 15. The 5600 South-I-15 interchange near the burgeoning Roy Innovation Center is also to get a major upgrade as part of the plans.
The plans were already in the pipeline, but last Friday’s action puts a clear date on when the work is to start, the spring of 2023, and and a price tag, $238 million. Prior to that, the timeline was still uncertain.
Image supplied, Utah Department of Transportation
This image shows proposed changes along the 5600 South corridor in Roy and the Interstate 15 interchange there as part of a proposed Utah Department of Transportation upgrade.
“The action by the transportation commission means those projects on the legislative list will definitely happen. The start dates are very firm on those. Once the funding is programmed, they typically don’t change,” Zach Whitney, spokesman for the Utah Department of Transportation, said Monday. The Roy project is one of 16 from around Utah on a list collectively worth $704.95 million that received a green light last Friday from the commission, an independent advisory body to the Utah governor.
Simultaneously, Roy leaders have approved creation of a program to help businesses forced to relocate because of the coming 5600 South upgrade and other redevelopment. Eligible businesses will be able to access up to $15,000 each to help cover relocation costs. “We’d like to keep them in Roy. We’ve just got to figure out how to do that,” said Roy Mayor Bob Dandoy.
Perhaps 15 business properties will be impacted by the plans to widen and upgrade 5600 South, many just west of 1900 West. They include a Wells Fargo Bank branch, a Wendy’s fast food outlet, a 7-Eleven convenience store and more. The new program is also meant to help businesses that face relocation due to redevelopment along 1900 West, a busy business corridor where new zoning rules went into effect to spur new growth.
The new business relocation program is key “because it shows existing businesses in Roy city that we want them to stay and we are willing to do everything we can to help them, at least help those that are directly impacted,” said Bryon Saxton. He’s a member of the Roy City Council and, like the rest of the council members, the board of the Roy Redevelopment Agency, the body that approved the business relocation program last week.
Dandoy said businesses impacted by the 5600 South project, aside from getting compensation for any land or property lost, may be able to tap into UDOT business relocation funding. “This will be an adjustment,” he said, noting that around 60 homes along the impacted 5600 South corridor will also be affected.
The 5600 South plans call for widening and upgrading the roadway from I-15 west to 3500 West. The roadway “is in dire need of widening,” Saxton said. Dandoy said the planned improvement should accommodate growth through 2050.