City officials were stunned recently to see freeway interchanges mapped out at Glover Lane and Shepard Lane on I-15.
And two routes under study for the Legacy Highway that slice through west Farmington didn't make them happy, either.The city is hiring a traffic engineer to counter the proposals with a better one, Farmington Mayor Greg Bell told a joint City Council and Planning Commission meeting last week packed with nearly 200 people.
The proposals are part of Utah Department of Transportation plans to rebuild I-15 between Salt Lake and Kaysville and build the new Legacy Highway through south Davis County.
But they're only proposals put out for public comment and can be changed, said UDOT's Byron Parker, project manager for both the I-15 reconstruction and the Legacy Highway.
The Glover Lane interchange, which Parker said would require taking out approximately 20 homes, was included in the proposal because it is in a long-range plan drawn up by the Wasatch Front Regional Council.
But the interchange "is not critical for the operation of I-15. We can move it," Parker said, adding that "from an engineering standpoint, it's not a good idea to dump freeway traffic directly into a residential area."
One reason a new ramp system was proposed there is to give south and west Farmington residents better access to I-15, Parker said, especially northbound drivers.
And the interchange drawn in at Shepard Lane was included to lessen the impact of a proposed interchange at Burke Lane that will tie the Legacy Highway into I-15 and U.S. 89.
A major interchange there to serve three intersecting freeways and give drivers a full range of choices will require a structure 60 feet high, Bell said.
City officials are also concerned about two routes under study through west Farmington for the Legacy Highway, proposed to start at I-80 west of the Salt Lake International Airport, then curve west and north of the airport through south Davis County, terminating for now in Farmington.
Gov. Mike Leavitt wants the highway to extend north to Weber County and eventually into Box Elder County.
But Parker said UDOT's plans at this point are to end the highway in Farmington or south Kaysville, connecting at Burke Lane to U.S. 89 and I-15.
Farmington initially wanted the highway to run adjacent to I-15 to avoid building a new transportation corridor through the city. But under pressure from the Western Transportation Corridor study committee, which was charged with mapping out the route, the city eventually endorsed a far west route, skirting the Great Salt Lake.
The routes unveiled recently at UDOT's open house ignore the recommendations of Farmington and the Western Transportation Corridor's study committee, the mayor told Parker, and come as an unpleasant surprise.
"This is a curve ball, Byron. We had a room full of citizens out there, that, well, this is a tame crowd compared to what we had out there last week," the mayor said, referring to citizen reaction to the two routes, one of which runs parallel to 650 West and one along 1100 West.
The mayor noted that in earlier public hearings on the highway's route "everyone came in and they said no (to the city's I-15 parallel route), go west," Bell said.
"They said it loudly, they said it profanely, they said it nicely. They said go as far west as possible. But your west looks like east," said Bell.
Parker said the city's idea of linking a west route to the Burke Lane interchange with an arterial street won't work.
"I-15 is a freeway. U.S. 89 is a freeway. The Legacy Highway is a freeway. You have to have freeway to freeway connections. You can't take traffic off a freeway, put it on an arterial and connect it to another freeway," Parker said.
Bell responded that the city will hire its own highway engineer to study the concept and propose new alternatives.
"It will be done. We've been on this for six days now," said the mayor, indicating the city's response to the information meeting.