Maj. Lynn Hinckley of the 115th Engineer Group said other American troops knew about the 1869 driving of a golden spike to make the link of the railroad tracks at Promontory Summit in northern Utah "but the rest of the Coalition [forces] did not understand without an explanation."

Coalition forces marked the final paving of the Main Supply Route (MSR) Tampa, dubbed Highway 1, in a recent ceremony near the Tallil Air Base in southern Iraq. Now, at least one lane of asphalt covers the central highway that winds its way from Iraq's northern border, south to the Persian Gulf.

In southern Iraq, the 80 soldiers in the 115th oversaw the paving of two highway lanes.

Lt. Col. Robert T. Dunton of the Utah National Guard came up with the idea of a golden spike to mark the paving of the last 88 miles of the road. At the time, two Iraqi companies constructing a northern and southern section of the highway were moving toward each other.

"One day, in staff meeting, I said that the two companies reminded me of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroad companies heading [to] Promontory [Summit]," Dunton said in an e-mail to The Tribune. "Since then, we referred to the completion of the Main Supply Route Tampa as the Golden Spike event."

Maj. Gen. Walter Natynczyk, coalition deputy commander, hammered the spike into the center of the pavement in the December ceremony. Col. Ed Willis, commander of the 115th, told the U.S. Army News Service that the spike also honored the home state of the Utah unit.

The Utah engineers also helped secure raw materials, such as sand, gravel and bitumen for the paving project. Bitumen, a natural tar, has been used on ancient ziggurat temples and roadways in the Fertile Crescent for the past 6,000 years.

The most common injury to U.S. troops in southern Iraq came from accidents along MSR Tampa, the route that brings virtually all supplies into Iraq and to coalition troops, said Col. Kerry M. Dexter, of Salt Lake City, in an interview last year.

"Portions of the road are not paved, and convoys travel fast and close together, so there's no reaction time for the drivers," he said. "If a truck swerves and brakes, there'll be a chain reaction among big trucks."

Today, work on the main highway is continuing.

"The ultimate plan is for a six-lane highway from the Persian Gulf to Baghdad," said Hinckley. "It will be completed long after we return home. Our goal was to get unbroken pavement for the resupply convoys, and we have accomplished that. Now it is a matter of improving it for the Iraqi people."

The 115th engineers supervised the project. Soldiers working under their direction included a unit from the Utah National Guard 116th Engineer Company, the Missouri and Arizona National Guard and the Marines.

The newly formed Iraqi Highway Patrol helped with security duties, guarding against hidden roadside bombs, bandits and snipers.