OGDEN -- If improvements to U-224 at Kimball Junction are made prior to the 2002 Winter Games, it is extremely unlikely European-style roundabouts will be in the reconstruction mix.
However, if plans to widen the highway south of its junction with I-80 are put on hold, roundabouts could become part of the traffic solution there, the Utah Transportation Commission learned Thursday.Andrew Gemperline, project manager for the Utah Department of Transportation, told the commission that the state Attorney General's Office has advised UDOT to do a full environmental impact statement before considering installation of up to four traffic-slowing roundabouts on U-224.
Gemperline said the Attorney General's Office is concerned that roundabouts would affect myriad property owners -- those with land just off U-224 and those whose property is accessed by U-224.
Such a detailed environmental study would take more than a year to complete, Gemperline said, making it difficult to consider roundabouts in any plan that calls for completion before the Games.
As their name implies, roundabouts, a locally preferred alternative to traffic signals, are circular roadways placed at the junction of two ormore roads. Motorists enter the roundabout and circle it until they get to the road they want then exit onto that road.
Roundabouts definitely will not be built as part of the I-80/Kimball Junction interchange reconstruction, Gemperline told the commission. Two had been proposed, one on either side of the interchange.
Beginning in the spring of 2000, UDOT will replace the north-south bridge above the interstate and rebuild the junction into a modern single-point interchange like those being built on I-15 in Salt Lake County.
Plans now call for UDOT to widen a half-mile of U-224 -- from six to nine lanes at one point -- just south of the interchange. If that work is done before athletes and spectators flock to the nearby Winter Sports Park in 2002, roundabouts won't be included -- and UDOT would be unlikely to go back and add them after the Games.
Gemperline said he will meet with UDOT Executive Director Tom Warne and his management team to consider how to proceed with the widening of U-224.
It is possible the department may want to delay improvements on U-224, with the exception of the interchange itself, until after the Games. UDOT's decision would then be brought before the commission, likely within the next two months.
Gemperline said after Thursday's meeting that while he thinks the environmental hurdle will preclude construction of roundabouts before the Games, "we're not giving up on anything."
"If we can find a way to expedite that process and make it work schedule-wise, we'll do it," he said. "But right now we have never known an environmental impact statement to be finished within a year, and with that process going over a year we don't perceive how we can do it yet."
Gemperline said he plans to meet with Summit County officials this week to discuss the status of roundabouts.
Donna VanBuren, a member of the county's Snyderville Basin Planning District Planning Commission, remained optimistic that roundabouts could be included on U-224 -- and in time for the Olympics.
"We've got some information that we're sharing with UDOT that may shed a different light" on the need and timetable for a full environmental study, said VanBuren, who did not attend the commission meeting.
"We are still looking at roundabouts as a viable option on 224."
Daily traffic volume at the interchange has nearly tripled in eight years. Local officials say they recognize the need for improvements but want the changes to enhance the resort area's uniqueness, not turn it into a suburban concrete jungle. Roundabouts are envisioned as a way to preserve aesthetics and reduce vehicle speeds.
The Kimball Junction reconstruction, including the widening of U-224 without roundabouts, will cost about $20 million. The federal government is expected to pay for more than 90 percent of the costs.
The transportation commission, a seven-member panel appointed by the governor to make funding and policy decisions for UDOT, held its monthly meeting in the David Eccles Conference Center.