There’s a public meeting on Wednesday evening to present the findings of the Heber Valley By-Pass and the Main Street Corridor studies. The project teams are hosting the open house to share traffic and congestion projections for the next 20 plus years and they hope to have input from the public as they try to build a plan to address growth impacts in the Heber Valley. Carolyn Murray has this:
Heber City Mayor Kelleen Potter says the City and UDOT have partnered in the two studies. She says they have a lot of specific data that shows how growth will impact traffic on Heber’s Main Street if a bypass road is not installed.
“Part of this is for educational purposes and part of this is to see what the public sense is about….the portion on the south end where there are a few different proposed routes. The public will have an opportunity to put sticky notes on some different places. There’s going to be some different poster boards in one area. What are some words that you think describe Heber City? Just trying to get a sense of what the public wants in the future.
They have determined where portions of the by-pass will go but they’re looking for input from the public on how it would be developed on the south end of town.
“There’s a route that ‘s already been charted on the western side of Heber City. That’s not really open for much discussion but of course there’s always room for input. The City and the county have been purchasing land on that area. There are a couple parts that are just lines on a map. We will be looking for input on that.”
She says the studies should be finalized by December. They will ask the 2019 state legislature to fund an Environmental Impact Study.
“If we do not have a by-pass or some alternate route, by 2040, you’re looking at a mile of traffic lined up coming into Heber City. And if this road fails, it makes it nearly impossible to get through Heber City certain times of day. So, Legislature, can you fund this next thing which would be an environmental study to look at this area that we’ve charted out to see if that would be a good place to hopefully build a potential by-pass or alternate route. Call it a Parkway.”
She says the County has been accumulating funds to acquire the land needed to build the by-pass.
“The hope is to have minimal access except for at the main intersections where there would have to be some sort of off ramps. Ideally, we will build it to federal standards and that will become US 40 and the truck route. So, trucks going to Vernal would be able to just hop off there. Even though it’s a little farther, they would just be able to go around Heber’s Main Street where we could slow that down and make it a little more conducive to economic development and community activities and such.”
The Heber Valley Bypass Corridor Meeting is Wednesday from 6-8 p.m. at the Wasatch County Senior Center at 465 East 1200 South in Heber.
