Wasatch County School District sends bypass support letter to UDOT

Five possible routes are still under consideration in the decades-long discussion of how to pull traffic away from Heber City’s Main Street.

After failed efforts to send a unified letter to UDOT, local entities in the Heber Valley are striking out on their own to share their opinions.

The school district chimed in Tuesday, Sept. 24, with a letter urging the agency to make its route recommendation.

Superintendent Paul Sweat said the time for UDOT to act is now.

“It can be argued that 20 years ago would have been a better time to put it through,” he said. “20 years ago would have been the best time to plant a tree, but the second-best time to plant a tree is today.”

The letter says student safety motivates the district to advocate for a bypass, arguing the current infrastructure poses dangers for school buses, pedestrians and bicyclists.

Last September, an SUV hit and critically injured a 9^th grade student on Main Street.

“We need to get this done for our students: to get the traffic off Main Street, to get the traffic slowed down and off of north Highway 40,” Sweat said. “In the recent history of this valley, the most fatal crashes have taken place on north Highway 40 and in our county, and I think they [UDOT] need to address both those issues in some way.”

Wasatch County School Board member Tyler Bluth said he’s glad the district is sending a letter of support.

“The bypass road has become mythical,” he said. “We don’t know if it’ll happen or not, but it’s time. We need to make this happen.”

Sweat said district leaders will supplement the letter with phone calls to UDOT asking it to make a decision and start construction as soon as possible.

UDOT is still evaluating the five possible routes. It’s not expected to announce its decision until at least 2025.