Cell service coming to Logan Canyon
As David Zook was driving down Logan Canyon, he saw a woman next to a stopped car, waving him down. Concerned, he pulled over.
The woman then took Zook to her vehicle, to which he saw the woman’s elderly mother in the passenger seat.
“I immediately was thinking to myself, ‘Is there some kind of medical emergency going on?’” Zook said.
However, the mother was fine, he later learned — but the small family had a broken down car, no cell service, and, as a result, no way to get out of the canyon without waving others down and hoping someone would help.
Zook then drove twenty minutes to leave the canyon, where he would have the cell service to call the Utah Highway Patrol. He estimated it had taken them over twenty minutes to reach the canyon, another twenty to find the family, and a final twenty to make it out of the canyon.
“If there had been a medical emergency, it would have taken more than twenty minutes for an ambulance to get there,” Zook said. “If that were a traffic accident or a heart attack or some other medical emergency, those minutes are critical.”
That’s why Zook, as Cache County Executive, decided to push for fiber optic cables in Logan Canyon, an extensive project that, while it would provide cell service to residents, would ultimately cost $20 million from Utah state funds.
“That’s a major problem right now in Logan Canyon — it’s almost impossible to get help and to get to a hospital within an hour with the current conditions without cell service,” Zook said. “Having cell towers in Logan Canyon will be an incredible public safety improvement simply because of the fact that it will give people access to health in a timely basis.”
For Utah State Senator Chris Wilson, R-Logan, the project has been especially important to him. Just this last 2023 legislative session, Wilson sent in a funding appropriations request for the state to fund the expensive construction.
Wilson noted he was motivated to start the project because of the environmental concerns the lack of cell service could pose.
“If we get a semi truck, or, heaven forbid, a tanker truck or something like that, that went into the river into Logan River and was leaking or something, I just worry the emergency response is going to be that much longer if we don’t have the cell service,” Wilson said. “I was concerned about, you know, catastrophic issue with the environment.”
The Utah Department of Transportation won’t just focus on implementing fiber cables and building cell towers, but the funding will also work to provide traffic cameras, message boards and weather stations, according to Rob Wite, the Utah Department of Transportation’s Region One Director.
Whenever a crash, weather event, or other type of emergency would close the canyon or create more dangerous driving conditions, Wilson said drivers would receive the information before they enter the canyon.
The cables will go from Garden City to the mouth of Logan Canyon, Wite said, and the construction is split up into several phases — with one section of the construction having been completed last year, another section estimated to be completed on Oct. 14, 2023 and the last stretch to be completed next year.
The federal government also had to approve the project, as the Logan Canyon is on federally-owned land, Wilson said. After the state legislature approved his appropriations request, Congress then encouraged the Utah Department of Transportation to move forward.
In addition to moving through the weeds of the approval process, Zook noted how construction on the project has not been simple.
“The environmental factors there are pretty challenging to be able to do any kind of construction project, especially burying an underground cable, where (you have) your narrow, winding road with either a drop off on one side or a mountain on the other, and the river and weather conditions, and traffic going through there, and no alternative routes to detour traffic,” Zook said.
Despite the extensive work with installing fiber optic cables underground and building cell towers throughout the canyon — often lauded for its beauty, Zook said — the public should not have concerns about serious environmental impacts.
Currently, the Utah Department of Transportation is working to fund the fiber optic cables, and separate cell phone companies are working with the Logan Ranger Service to build cell towers, Wite said.
“(Logan Canyon) is a rare beauty in Utah and in our nation. That canyon is a natural treasure — and putting cell towers into the canyon is something that would be a great public safety movement, but it’s something that we also wanted to do in a way that we could preserve the natural beauty,” Zook said.
Utah State Representative Daniel Johnson, R-Logan, agreed with Zook.
“I think that the beauty of the canyon with this kind of installation is not going to be hurt near as much as if you were cutting away at, chopping down trees,” Johnson said. “I don’t see that happening with this installation.”
Johnson, also a supporter of the funding request and member of the Utah House Transportation Committee, noted Utah State University students are especially central to conversations about the need for cell communication.
“It’s several thousands of students that go to Utah State University, and it’s growing, and so when we talk about safety concerns and transportation concerns, they’re right in the middle of all of that,” Johnson said. “This is for them as much as it is for a visitor just coming in to our area or a lifelong resident of Cache County that is going up and down.”
Although construction should minimally affect USU students, Zook still encouraged any students driving through the canyon to remain cautious during the changes. Wite agreed, adding students should check with the Utah Department of Transportation’s social media sites.
“While we’re working on this project, there’s going to be closures in the canyon, probably lane closures from time to time,” Wite said. “I think just checking on UDOT social media sites … we will send out alerts when there’s closures, and I think understanding that and knowing that during construction — that’s going to be an impact.”