'The Legacy Parkway is done' — and it's open to commuters
Dignitaries and builders set road traffic in motion
Saturday spelled relief for Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who began trying, nearly as soon as he took office, to broker a compromise out of the sticky litigation that held up the parkway's construction from 2001 to 2006.
It spelled relief for John Njord, executive director of the Utah Department of Transportation, who has been reminded daily by a bright orange sticker in his briefcase to "build Legacy now."
"The Legacy Parkway is done," he declared to Huntsman at the parkway's grand opening in Woods Cross.
"The Legacy begins today."
And with a countdown by a crowd of hundreds, Huntsman, Njord, Utah Transportation Commission chairman Stuart Adams and others on motorcycles, flanked by a motorcade of classic cars, Utah Highway Patrol motorcycles and construction company pickups, began driving south from the new 500 South interchange, one of four new interchanges designed to improve traffic circulation in Davis County.
And there it is: Utah's newest road. It's almost hard to get over the fact that such a to-do was made over 14 miles of pavement.
But it just wouldn't be Legacy without it.
It's been a big deal since local leaders began discussing the reality of a West Davis Highway, a highway envisioned by local planners since the 1960s but something that became nearly tangible in the 1990s.
Construction started in 2001 with a $451 million budget, but a lawsuit in November 2001 by the Sierra Club, Utahns for Better Transportation and then-Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson in 2001 led to an injunction that halted progress on the roadway until 2006.
The lawsuit had challenged the decision by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration and Army Corps of Engineers to allow Utah to build the parkway, but a deal brokered in late 2006 allowed it to move forward again — with a much higher budget of $685 million.
Marc Heileson, southwest representative of the Sierra Club, said Saturday he's happy with the way Legacy has turned out.
Original plans called for a six-lane interstate-type highway with no transit component and which lacked environmental sensitivity, he said.
The agreement between lawsuit plaintiffs and state leaders toned down the parkway to a four-lane asphalt road with a 55 mph speed limit and limited to trucks of five axles or more. It also increased the size of the Legacy Nature Preserve from 2,000 acres to 2,225 acres.
Recent comments
from my home to work - the difference by taking legacy vs I15 is…
randy | Sept. 25, 2008 at 11:41 a.m.
All hail King Rocky! I can almost see him standing on his beautiful…
REMAY | Sept. 15, 2008 at 2:17 p.m.
200 million more and how many years later to protect what? Sierra…
Sad | Sept. 15, 2008 at 10:54 a.m.
