Weber County officials want the West Davis Corridor to come north
OGDEN — Elected officials in Weber County are pushing the transportation department to move the West Davis Corridor north.
The Weber Area Council of Governments is working on a resolution that urges the Utah Department of Transportation to extend the $610 million first phase of the corridor to State Road 193.
The initial section of the road will likely extend from Interstate 15 and the Legacy Parkway in Farmington, north to Antelope Drive in Layton. The first phase of construction was funded in April 2017, when the Utah Legislature approved a four-year, $1 billion bond that allows the state to accelerate certain transportation projects.
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Barring any legal challenge, construction on the western alternative to I-15 will begin in 2020. UDOT expects the construction to take approximately two years.
Hooper Mayor Korry Green chairs WACOG, a body made up of representatives from the county and the individual municipalities within it. Green said the council would prefer the road be built all the way to 1800 North in West Point, as was initially planned, but now would like to see the road at least hit S.R. 193 during the first two years of construction.
WACOG’s thinking, Green said, is the farther north the road gets now, the quicker a planned extension through western Weber County will be built.
The extension, which has been called “North Legacy” and the “West Weber Corridor,” would run from the the Davis road’s eventual northern terminus at 1800 North in West Point, to 4000 North in Farr West, near the Weber/Box Elder County border. There, the road would connect with I-15.
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UDOT spokesman Vic Saunders said a 2009 study identified a possible route for the Weber County extension — an alignment that avoids prime agricultural land and development — but none of the land has been preserved by the state yet.
Story continues below map.
Utah Department of Transportation
This map from the Utah Department of Transportation shows a potential route for an extension of the West Davis Corridor through Weber County.
Green and Weber County Commissioner James Ebert both say the road is important to the future of the county, bringing with it not only a direct, western connection to Davis and Salt Lake counties, but a mass of economic development potential as well.
“The further north we can get it now, the better it is for Weber County,” Green said.
The state has federal approval to build the corridor to 1800 North, but UDOT Program Manager Rex Harris said the $610 million earmarked so far will likely only get the road to Antelope Drive.
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“We’re pretty confident we can get there,” Harris said. “But the hope is we get in and start working with a contractor and take it as far north as we can.”
But the likely scenario, Harris said, is that the road won’t reach 1800 North until sometime after 2025.
Ebert said the resolution, which will be forwarded to UDOT, encourages the state to find scenarios to push the road north before then. The commissioner said Weber County officials will approach the Davis County Council of Governments, asking officials there to pass a similar resolution.
You can reach reporter Mitch Shaw at mishaw@standard.net. Follow him on Twitter at @mitchshaw23 or like him on Facebook at Facebook.com/MitchShaw.StandardExaminer.
