It was first envisioned as a way to move coal trucks from Kane County's Kaiparowits Plateau to I-15.
Then it became part of a far-reaching federal proposal to build a 3,000-mile transcontinental interstate.Those plans have fizzled, but the Southern Corridor lives on - not just in the cerebral hemisphere of some forward-thinking highway engineer but in the oft-used checkbook of the Utah Department of Transportation.
UDOT is about to launch a $1 million environmental study as the first step toward constructing an east-west highway from I-15 south of Bloomington at least as far as Warner Ridge - about six miles - to the site of a proposed regional airport.
Washington County transportation planners see the Southern Corridor as part of a future 50-mile beltway that would encompass the city of St. George and meet the transportation needs of this rapidly growing corner of southern Utah through 2040.
The $1 million will come from the state's Centennial Highway Fund, the gasoline-tax coffer created to rebuild I-15 in Salt Lake County and finance dozens of other road construction projects across the state. Money to build the estimated $42 million four-lane road, however, has not been identified.
"It's an important project for the future of southern Utah," said Tom Warne, UDOT's executive director. "It was important enough that it's one of the first projects on the Centennial list that's gotten money, so I think that reflects on how the department and (Utah Transportation) Commission see the project.
"The question is, when will we have the resources to build it?"
A mining conglomerate, Andalex Resources Inc., inspired talk of the Southern Corridor years ago when it proposed the Smoky Hollow Mine in eastern Kane County. Each day, the mine would have sent 150 90-foot-long trucks loaded with coal down an 8-percent grade and into Hurricane on U-59. The Southern Corridor was seen as a way to redirect those coal transports.
But the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, created by President Clinton in 1996, swallowed up coal deposits in the Kaiparowits Plateau and squashed the Andalex proposal.
The Southern Corridor remained important, however, as part of a potential cross-country interstate. The Southern Corridor originally was proposed as a 31-mile highway across an open stretch of desert south of Zion National Park, and was touted as one of the first segments of I-66 - a trans-America freeway from Virginia to California.
But a feasibility study by the Federal Highways Administration determined I-66 wouldn't be worthwhile. While the need for another east-west interstate exists, the agency decided the high cost outweighed the benefits.
"You start dealing with environmental issues and landowner issues, and the conclusion was it wasn't feasible," said Mike Ritchie, federal highways administrator for the agency's Salt Lake office. "They did recognize there are places along the corridor where it may be advantageous for locals to complete certain (segments) so that they could in fact tie into major access points to the national highway system."
That's the direction UDOT, St. George and Washington County officials are headed. A six-mile section of the original Southern Corridor has become part of the proposed 50-mile Washington County beltway.
"It's a critical road for the proposed airport we have south of town and that's really what has pushed that road going in," said Aron Baker, traffic engineer for the city of St. George. "It's also (located near) state trust land and, of course, they're always looking to capitalize on that land."
Robert Barrett, director of the Utah Aeronautics Division, believes the proposed St. George regional airport will be operational within 10 years. But it is still in the planning stages. A site has not been chosen, but two of three proposed locations are next to each other at the eastern edge of the Southern Corridor route.
The need for the estimated $81 million regional airport is apparent, according to airline and community officials.
SkyWest Airlines offers six roundtrip flights a day on small commuter planes between St. George and Salt Lake City, and will resume daily flights to Los Angeles in October. Those flights often are filled to capacity. But the existing airport, atop a mesa on the city's west side, is too small for larger commercial jets and can't be expanded.
A St. George company, the Heritage Institute Inc., wants to build an international airport and theme park near Cedar City in neighboring Iron County. But St. George officials say even if that airport is constructed, it won't delay or diminish the need for a new St. George facility.
"They are two different regions and markets," said Larry Bulloch, St. George's public works director. "We're only serving about a third of the (potential) market, currently. We're not meeting the demand. We're having to turn away other (airlines) that would like to come into the area."
But they can't turn away new residents. Washington County has established itself through the 1990s as one of the fastest-growing counties in one of the fastest-growing states in the country. Retirees and fleeing Californians have helped its population soar from 49,100 in 1990 to 72,888 in 1996.
As long as the people keep coming, roads, airports and other transportation improvements will come with them.