PAROWAN -- Go up this road that tops out at 10,567 feet at Cedar Breaks, and your engine will grind to let you know this is no ordinary route. Come down this road, and your brakes will be constantly tested.
Climbing 4,600 feet in about 18 miles from Parowan to Cedar Breaks National Monument in Iron County, U-143 is the steepest paved state road in Utah with a maximum grade of 13 percent."I don't know any other state road that's steeper," said Scott Munson, district engineer for the Utah Department of Transportation's Cedar City office.
The highway is among about a dozen roads in the state that have a geographic distinction.
Most major U.S. highways don't exceed a 6 percent grade, the magic number for the preferred maximum steepness of a road. Parleys Canyon (I-80) has a maximum grade of 6 percent.
Wade Carpenter, the marshal for the town of Brian Head, located at a 9,700-foot elevation along U-143, said "brakes on fire" is a fairly common scenario for large trucks and buses that travel downward here.
"Brakes heat up and get hot," he said, explaining there's seldom a shoulder along the roadway here either. "The S-curves are a traditional place where we have the most problems."
He said it's the mile of curvy road downward from Brian Head that's the steepest of all, and he stressed the going down, not up, is where most problems occur.
In addition, he said U-143 sometimes ices over and so chains are often required by vehicles. The road is open year-round and has been closed only a handful of times because of drifting snow, thanks to a great maintenance effort by the Utah Department of Transportation.
"There haven't been a lot of fatalities," Carpenter said. "We've tried to enforce the chain-up laws and the speed limits."
The road has an average speed limit of 30 mph, but the upper S-curves have a 15 mph limit and the lower portion of the road before Parowan goes up to 50 mph.
Lt. Clayton Allred of the Utah Highway Patrol in Cedar City said the steep road does produce a few accidents each year -- three fatalities in 1999. However, more than anything else the steep highway causes some drivers a lot of frustration when they get behind a slow-moving camper or trailer going up the hill.
"There aren't many places to pass," Allred said.
He said oversize loads are not allowed on U-143.
"Our biggest problem is with large commercial-size vehicles," Carpenter said.
He recommends large buses and trucks use U-14 out of Cedar City, where a 10 percent grade is the maximum, to access the area.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com