Weber County commissioners formally agreed to ask the Utah Department of Transportation to designate the road section planned for western Weber County a high-priority transportation corridor. Getting the designation, they hope, will jumpstart planning and other efforts to develop the extension of the roadway, also called the Legacy Highway.

Tuesday’s action, “just tells the transportation commission that Weber County feels Legacy North is an important part of our future,” said Weber County Commissioner Gage Froerer. If the UDOT Transportation Commission agrees to the request, he said, he hopes that speeds up its eventual development, making it five to 10 years away instead of 10 to 15 years off.

Work on the Davis County section of the road started last March and is to finish in 2024. The $750 million project calls for construction of a 16-mile, four-lane divided highway on the west side of Davis County, running northwesterly from around Glovers Lane in Farmington to State Road 193 in West Point.

Part of the aim is to create a new corridor to haul cars between the Salt Lake City area and northern Davis County, alleviating congestion on Interstate 15 as growth along the Wasatch Front surges.

Image supplied, Weber County commissioners

Plans in Weber County call for the extension of the road from Hooper north along the western edge of West Haven to the northwestern periphery of Plain City. There it would turn eastward and tie into Interstate 15 just north of the Box Elder County line.

The corridor in western Weber County — called the West Weber Corridor in planning documents — cuts through an area where more and more housing developments are sprouting and where future growth is forecast. Mindful of that, Froerer noted that if Weber County leaders don’t press for quicker movement, the project could be 10 to 15 years away.

“The point is, we need to be on that (high priority) list and, my opinion, the sooner the better,” he said when commissioners discussed the matter last Tuesday. “And quite frankly, knowing what we have happening now in western Weber County, I don’t believe we have 10 or 15 years before it’s going to be a major issue with transportation.”

Getting the high-priority designation would move the plans past other projects competing for UDOT funding.

Tuesday’s vote to seek the high-priority status from the UDOT Transportation Commission passed 2-1. Commissioner Jenkins, while not opposed to the roadway plans, voted no, citing the county’s efforts to update the planning document that guides development in unincorporated western Weber County. He had proposed waiting until the general plan update is complete, perhaps by next January, but he was outnumbered by Froerer and Commissioner Jim Harvey.

Photo supplied, Utah Department of Transportation

As is, no funding has yet been set aside for the Weber County extension of the corridor, UDOT spokesperson Mitch Shaw said. Moreover, as things currently stand, the project won’t happen for at least 20 years.

“But an important caveat is that that could always change. The Legislature could decide to fund something like this earlier than what’s on the long-range plan,” Shaw said.

He said UDOT has acquired “a minimal” number of tracts in anticipation of developing the roadway in Weber County. Even so, both he and Froerer said the proposed corridor isn’t yet an absolute.

“I would say it’s not set in concrete,” Froerer said, though, at the same time, he doesn’t foresee drastic change to the route.

As for the work on the corridor in Davis County, Shaw said that is on schedule. It’s to be a freeway-style road, with limited access at a handful of interchanges in the Farmington, Kaysville, Layton and Syracuse areas. Its formal name will be State Route 177.

Photo supplied, Utah Department of Transportation