Despite decades of opposition from environmentalists, hunters, and Grand County officials, a proposed freeway through Utah’s Book Cliffs was never destroyed.
The project only went underground and recently resurfaced with a rights-of-way application from a consortium of power-generating counties that have long tried to connect the Uinta Basin to Interstate 70.
Grand County is upset that the project proposal is being pushed forward without consulting with Legislator and Governor Gary Herbert who supports it. Local leaders see this as a show of disrespect and a betrayal of the principle of local government that state officials normally advocate.
While the project was originally proposed for the transportation of oil, its current version, called the Eastern Utah Regional Connection, is designed to encourage travel between tourist hotspots, according to Mike McKee, executive director of the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition.
“If you look at the north-south corridors, we don’t have very many of them,” said McKee, a former Uintah County commissioner. “Connecting these communities for travel and tourism is a great opportunity. That connection from Yellowstone to Flaming Gorge and Dinosaur National Monument that makes that connection to the beauties of Grand County and the Mighty 5 [national parks]what a goal. “
But Grand Counties have little appetite for such a connection, especially when it cuts through a land valued for its savage character, according to Mary McGann, chairman of the seven-member Grand County Commission.
“There are so many roads in Utah that are dangerous and in need of repair,” said McGann, referring to US Highway 6 in Counties Emery and Carbon and State Road 12 over Boulder Mountain. “It doesn’t really serve a purpose.”
The Bureau of Land Management is currently processing the coalition’s application for a 35-mile right of way from the end of the paved Seep Ridge Road on the Uintah-Grand circular line to a freeway exit east of Cisco. The agency is expected to launch an environmental review shortly, which the legislature will cover for $ 3.2 million.
The project would pave existing dirt roads through harsh and wild land loved by big game hunters. Every mile is in Grand County, southern Utah’s outdoor tourism magnet. Earlier this month, the County Commission voted 5-2 to send a strong letter to the BLM denouncing the proposal.
“The planned Book Cliffs Highway is not in the public interest and contradicts the management of public areas for nature and wildlife protection,” the letter dated September 15 said. “The Book Cliffs Highway has always been – and still is – a subsidy to the extractive industry designed to facilitate the expansion of natural resources on the Tavaputs Plateau and the transportation of fossil fuels to market.”
Costing an estimated $ 195 million to $ 418 million, the highway would divert federal mineral leases from their intended purpose of mitigating the impact of the extractive industry, the letter said.
The county claims the road would cut the journey between Vernal and Moab by only 27 miles and cut the journey time by no more than 25 minutes. Meanwhile, an estimated 138 deer would die on the highway each year.
While Moab is drowning in tourism, the picturesque country around Vernal in the north is relatively undiscovered. According to McKee, the proposed freeway is set to pull tourists through counties Uinta and Daggett by providing a shortcut to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.
Governor Gary Herbert agrees. In a letter of support dated Jan. 24, he linked the project with his government’s goal of creating 25,000 new jobs in rural Utah.
“A well-functioning transport system is crucial for a strong economy. Roads connect people with one another, facilitate the movement of goods and create economic synergies, ”he wrote. “These transportation systems are particularly important to the rural Utah communities and businesses, which typically travel much longer distances than on the Wasatch Front.”
The letter stated that travel between northeastern and southeastern Utah requires significant detours via Price or western Colorado. Some of the more direct routes follow rough dirt roads that are prone to flooding and impassable in winter.
“A united and connected Eastern Utah will be stronger than each area would be on its own,” the letter said. “The construction of a direct all-weather road between Uintah County and Interstate-70 in Grand County will facilitate regional interaction and provide opportunities for the growth and diversification of the economy in eastern Utah.”
McGann was upset with the legislature and the governor would use their support on a controversial project without consulting the county that the road would pass through.
“It shows that they have little respect for a county that travels to a different beat than other counties in the state,” she said. “It’s frustrating to be an elected official in a district where state lawmakers are ahead of the curve.”
In 2014, the Utah Department of Transportation published a feasibility study examining three lines exiting the Book Cliffs through either East, Hay, or Sego canyons. The coalition’s proposed right of way is through the East Canyon, which McKee says should have the least impact.
“We don’t have to go through wilderness study areas,” he said.
Grand County’s criticism may have been stinging, but McKee is confident that his coalition and its southern neighbor can resolve their differences during the environmental review process that has just begun.
“Ideally, we would like to build support with them,” he said. “This is an opportunity to connect churches. I am confident that we will build support for this when we visit Grand County. “
According to McGann, that’s not likely.
Grand County was a founding member of the infrastructure coalition that McKee leads. But in 2014 voters installed new district councils, who promptly withdrew from the coalition, whose support for the Book Cliffs Highway was a key issue.
“Nevertheless, we are repeatedly forced to call our longstanding resistance [seven county coalition] continues to burn tax dollars to force this undesirable infrastructure development within Grand County’s jurisdiction lines, ”the county’s letter said. “Not only [the coalition’s] The continued refusal to disrespect Grand County’s stated position is also at odds with Utah’s values of independence and self-determination in local government.
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