UDOT proposes 2000 W. road closure
Citizens of Cache Valley spoke up at the Cache County Joint Council Meeting, March 29 at the Cache County Administration Building in regards to their safety in proposed road closures.
Several members of various city councils as well as citizens of Cache County contested UDOT representative Nathan Peterson’s proposal to close various parts 2000 West, including locations within South Logan, Wellsville, College Ward and Benson.
UDOT spokeman Vic Saunders cited poor visibility between some parts of 2000 West and Highway 89-91 as reason for the necessary precautions, saying that a closure of many such routes will eliminate a risk which has resulted in a fatality in the past.
“We are taking away an access to a roadway that is not safe,” he said. “We’re not trying to take everyone’s access away, but with access to highways, especially with a high speed corridor, it’s the responsibility of the state to seek safety for its users.”
However, as many of the avenues connected to the road become closed, large vehicles lose their safe passage of travel in the surrounding area, leaving them to dangerously turn in already-too-small intersections, said council chairman Jon White.
“One road comes, then you want to make a turn, then you can’t so you use a side road, but if that’s going to close then you can’t make the turn at all,” he said in explaining the challenges that come from the potential series of closures. “Then you need to make the intersection square to close the other road, and those large vehicles get stuck.”
The concerns are a signal Peterson said UDOT hears with open ears.
“We do look at those circumstances when we do our design,” said Peterson, who admitted that he and others at UDOT did anticipate that there would be a contest to a presentation that involved putting a number of vehicles in jeopardy of safely passing through various intersections. “We take these comments and we will go back and analyze, look at our numbers and do additional analysis on these intersections.”
Peterson said he could not confirm nor predict directly after the meeting what some of the adjustments would involve, including if it would involve enlarging any current intersections, to what severity the road closures would decrease or to whether intersections or certain parts of the road will now close at all.
“Right now, I cannot say because I do not know what the proposed changes will be,” he said. “We need to look at the design vehicle, look at the design work and look at what the impacts are.”
Other city council members who attended the meeting saw the precautions that would caboose such road closures in the particular area.
“Pulling these community representatives is together is a very good idea to be able to hear issues like this, just to see traffic flow in the valley and how that would be affected,” said Hyde Park council member Mark Hurd. “I just could see the points of concern.”
Such concern is a vital part to the reciprocation Peterson affirmed he and UDOT would receive and seek to apply to the closure plan.
“Part of the process is to get feedback from those in the area and take back and design better to provide a solution,” he said.
Peterson’s vow fell on White’s skeptic ears.
“I hope they go back to the drawing board,” he said. “It didn’t sound like they were.”
Saunders did indeed remain firm when told that White doubted that UDOT would restructure the plan.
“If there was no other way around this, we would proceed very carefully,” he said. “But unless there are compelling reasons not to protect line-of-sight safety on 89 91, I would think that we would be proceeding.”
– rhett.wilkinson@aggiemail.usu.edu