UDOT announced Jan. 7 it intends to construct a highway through Wasatch County’s North Fields to address traffic issues in the region.
The new road will help drivers “bypass” downtown Heber, which UDOT says should alleviate some of the pressure on the city’s main roads.
Main Street is also U.S. 40, a four-lane highway that’s part of the National Truck Network. Between 600 and 700 “supertanker” trucks pass through Heber City every day, according to UDOT.
Heber City Manager Matt Brower said truck traffic is one of the biggest detriments to the quality of daily life downtown.
“It’s hard to have a conversation near the roadway,” he said. “It’s about the quality of the downtown experience, and we believe that quality is going to be greatly improved when that truck traffic is routed around the downtown.”
Heber City cannot forbid trucks from using Main Street. But once a new highway is built, it could be designated as part of the National Network instead, and managing Main Street could become Heber City’s job instead of UDOT’s.
According to UDOT’s studies, the city could then “implement changes that would make Main Street less desirable for trucks”: reducing speed limits, adding traffic lights and crosswalks and narrowing road lanes.
Brower said whether UDOT or the city controls the road in the future, he’d like to see those types of local-friendly changes.
“Those enhancements might be landscaped medians, mid-block crosswalks, bulb-outs to improve the pedestrian environment, more art, more amenities like chairs – things of that nature,” he said.
Bulb-outs are a way to extend the sidewalk and make roads narrower at intersections. They’re meant to make streets safer by encouraging drivers to slow down and shortening the distance pedestrians must cross.
Lowering the speed limit would be another option. KUER reports that in Moab, where Main Street is also U.S. Highway 191, pedestrian fatalities dropped after UDOT lowered the speed limit to 30 mph downtown.
But Brower said it can be tricky to find the right balance.
“The lower the speed limit is, the more congestion is going to be in downtown,” he said. “So, there’s that trade-off between the sweet spot of where that speed needs to be and trying to keep downtown congestion at an absolute minimum.”
For now, UDOT controls the speed limit in downtown Heber, which currently sits at 35 mph.
Rachel Kahler leads the Community Alliance for Main Street.
She said she’s optimistic the bypass could help make Main Street a place where people want to spend time and money. Right now, she said noise, traffic and safety are significant deterrents.
“Those three combined really are creating this negative feeling on Main Street,” she said. “And yet, from a Community Alliance for Main Street perspective, we have so much to celebrate about downtown. We have vibrancy, we have new businesses coming, we have a new restaurant downtown.”
Kahler said she’d like to see the speed limit reduced to 25 mph, more parking added and better infrastructure for pedestrians and bikers.
“If we could have our Main Street back, we truly could create a pedestrian-friendly area,” she said. “I really see an opportunity for downtown Heber to maybe look back at the good old days of the ‘40s and the ‘50s, where people shopped and dined and entertained downtown, and that’s what we’d like to see for Heber in the future.”
It will likely be years before a bypass is constructed. The estimated cost of the project is over $760 million.
After UDOT finalizes its route decision this summer, it must go through the funding process. UDOT leaders said in spring 2025 the agency has already planned how to spend all of its anticipated revenue until 2031. However, if the state makes the bypass a priority, work could begin sooner.
To learn more about UDOT’s preferred bypass route, see the draft environmental impact statement.
