Starting Monday, no vehicles longer than 50 feet will be allowed on State Route 39 in the canyon, one of several safety measures UDOT is taking to lower the risk of further deadly crashes in an area where five people have died since 2015.

UDOT Region One Senior Communications Manager Mitch Shaw explained in a phone interview on Friday that the department attempts to constantly monitor the safety of state roads. When there are major crashes, however, it increases the scrutiny as UDOT attempts to find ways to improve.

“Anytime we have a significant crash that involves serious injuries or fatalities, that’s kind of an opportunity for us to put that area under a microscope,” Shaw said.

He talked about the accident in July 2024 when a large load came off a truck and crashed into a vehicle going the other direction, resulting in two deaths and multiple injuries. Although it was determined that driver error caused the tragedy, Shaw said UDOT is always looking for ways to minimize the risks.

“We did a modeling analysis,” Shaw said. “A couple of our design engineers modeled every kind of vehicle that could go up through the canyon. What they found is that there is a section called The Narrows near the mouth of the canyon where basically there is a big piece of the mountain jutting out into the road where it is physically impossible for a vehicle over 50 feet to not encroach at least a little bit in the opposite lane.”

After getting public comment and evaluating the possibilities, UDOT came to the conclusion that — for the safety of all drivers — vehicles that couldn’t fit in the canyon had to be banned.

“That was really … the only thing we could do and so that’s what we’re doing,” Shaw said. “We took a lot of study and a lot of thought and a lot of coordination with the Weber County Sheriff’s Office and the Utah Highway Patrol to let them know what we’re thinking and how it’s going to impact them and their enforcement. We talked with the county and some people from the trucking industry. It was quite the process to just kind of make sure we had really dotted all of our i’s and crossed all of our t’s and made sure we did everything right.”

The new policy will mean that larger vehicles will now need to go up Weber Canyon and then take Trappers Loop (State Route 167) from Mountain Green to get into Ogden Valley.

“Trappers Loop is a really good alternative,” Shaw said. “Weber Canyon is a few miles down the road, so you may have to take a circuitous route if you are a truck driver that has one of these longer loads. It will take some getting used to, but I think ultimately, it will protect these truck drivers as well from any sort of kind of liability on their part too. I can’t speak for everyone in the industry but I would imagine that they don’t want to drive through an area that they can’t fit either.”

He added that businesses may instead elect to ship things on two smaller vehicles instead of one larger one. He recognized that there is a lot of construction going on and there may be challenges but expressed confidence that the companies will figure it out and the public safety will be worth the price.

In addition to the restriction, Shaw also said UDOT has added center-line rumble strips in Ogden Canyon to warn drivers who are veering out of their lane as well upgraded barriers. It will also reduce the speed limit to 35 mph in The Narrows and install radar speed feedback signs.

He acknowledged that at some point the roadway through the canyon might address the narrowness concerns by being widened, but there are no plans for that to happen in the near future for a number of reasons.

“We did look at widening the road in the narrow section and had a company that does rock blasting provide estimates,” Shaw said. “Basically what we found is that it would cost a whole lot of money, enough to be cost prohibitive. It would also require a significant long-term closure of the canyon, probably over a month at the least. And there are also environmental concerns with the river right there and many people don’t want to see it changed. It’s a state scenic byway and a lot of people want that to be preserved.”

The best way to prevent accidents, though, is for drivers to be responsible. UDOT encourages drivers to secure their load, keep a safe amount of traveling distance between the vehicle ahead of them and use caution when driving around sharp curves.

“We really need people to pay attention, slow down and put down the distractions, especially when driving in the canyon,” Shaw said.