Environews

Environews: West Davis Corridor rejects Shared Solution

By Amy Brunvand

Well, at least we tried. The West Davis Corridor is a proposal for a freeway expansion that would slice through human communities and Great Salt Lake bird habitat at Farmington Bay. The Shared Solution Coalition proposed a no-build option, but it has been rejected by the Utah Department of Trans­por­tation (UDOT) because it “will not meet the transportation need in the study area.”

The tragedy is that new freeways always generate new traffic and new development so the ever-expanding “need” can never be met. While other cities are taking out freeways to promote more beneficial land use, UDOT keeps building more big roads.

On the plus side, UDOT has agreed to adopt some of the suggestions from the Shared Solution plan including trails, noise-reducing pavement and dark sky lighting.

West Davis Corridor: udot.utah.gov/westdavis; Shared Solution Coalition: sharedsolution.org

This article was originally published on June 28, 2016.