Highway 18

Bluff Street turns into Highway 18 as it heads north out of St. George toward Winchester Hills, Diamond Valley, Veyo, and Enterprise. The tremendous growth north of town puts a lot of added pressure on Highway 18. Commuters racing to and from work increasingly compete with truck traffic on the road. New developments (like the Ledges and the Trails) will put even more pressure on the road.

The explosive growth on Highway 18 was not anticipated years ago when projects were prioritized for the Centennial Highway Fund and the State Transportation Implementation Plan. And, believe me, it is tough pushing funding to projects that aren’t on those lists (because it basically means that projects that did make those lists would be bumped back).

I am very pleased with the diligence UDOT has shown on Highway 18 (and many other Southern Utah projects, for that matter). Continually, UDOT has scraped together funds from various sources (usually, from the relatively smallish discretionary funding pots it has) to make improvements to Highway 18, including extra lanes for the climbs up to Winchester Hills and Diamond Valley. UDOT knows, I know, and everyone who drives Highway 18 knows, that Highway 18 needs a more comprehensive fix.

To address that, we managed to appropriate some “choke point project funding” this year for Highway 18. To the frustration of commuters (and, no doubt, the Ledges), construction started and stalled on Highway 18 this summer. The stall happened as negotiations took place to enlarge the scope of the project, reflecting the infusion of the additional funding. Our UDOT district engineer, Scott Munson, told me today that construction will start again by mid-September and run to the end of December. Four lanes will be put in from the top part of the first big climb (about the turn off to the Lee Snow’s place) to north of the Ledges overpass.

That’s a nice step in the right direction. I wish I could simply wave a magic wand and make all of our transportation woes go away on the state roads in our community (heck, if it’s a magic wand, I might as well shoot for all state roads and local roads, too). But, alas, I haven’t yet found that magic wand. It is a pleasure, though, to work with UDOT, the City of St. George, our federal delegation, and my other legislators to try to find solutions. It’s a big challenge, but with those good teammates, I like our odds.