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U.S. 40 in eastern Utah now has only a single lane in each direction in many sections, heavy traffic and a constant parade of large tanker trucks carrying crude oil from the Uinta Basin to refineries in North Salt Lake.
The Utah Department of Transportation on Friday released its vision of how it plans to change a 175-mile corridor of that highway through 2040 to lessen congestion and improve safety.
The highway will look much different in its eastern and western sections.
Between Vernal and Duchesne, plans call for it to have five lanes: two lanes of traffic in each direction plus a turning lane, Teri Newell, director of UDOT Region 3, told the Utah Transportation Commission.
Between Heber City and Duchesne, it will have three lanes — "where we will have one travel lane in each direction and then we would alternate passing lanes as we go through that area," Newell said.
The area from Duchesne to Vernal has the highest traffic volume, 12,000 to 13,000 cars a day, which is why UDOT is planning more lanes there, Newell said.
"Vernal's Main Street," part of U.S. 40, "has as much traffic as Provo's University Avenue," said Shane Marshall, deputy director of UDOT.
Plans also call for extra-wide shoulders on the highway, 10 feet wide. Newell said that is designed to allow the oil tankers to pull over safely if they have problems.
Newell said UDOT has worked with local communities to develop the plans. It also has specific plans for every mile of the corridor, to preserve land needed for widening and to plan construction — piece by piece — as money becomes available.
"We have a vision for the corridor, but we also have an implementation plan that goes with it," Newell said.
The transportation commission on Friday approved funding for some such projects.
Some $9 million became available for such widening work when UDOT and local officials sidetracked a proposal late last year for a multi-billion-dollar railroad to transport crude oil from the Uinta Basin. They dropped it when what they originally thought may be a $2 billion project would more likely cost $5 billion.
UDOT had some leftover money that had been set aside for further environmental study of the proposal, and the commission approved using it instead for two projects to add passing lanes on U.S. 40 near Myton.
Newell said they will come in a 10-mile stretch that now has no passing lanes. "When you have that long of a stretch with no passing lanes, people start making maneuvers they probably shouldn't be doing," she said.
The commission also approved adding $19.5 million to widen the highway west of Roosevelt.
Gayle McKeachnie, a commission member and former lieutenant governor from Vernal, said traffic is so heavy that "these are projects we needed last year, not 20 years from now."