UDOT wants to build a highway through generations-old agricultural land. Farmers and activists are pushing back.

Heber • A line of tractors and cars rumbled through Heber on Saturday, reviving a protest tactic popular in the late 1970s, when farmers nationwide would roll their rigs through towns to make their voices heard.

Farmers, landowners and residents brought the tactic back to oppose a Utah Department of Transportation plan recommending a bypass that would redirect U.S. Route 40 through Heber Valley’s North Fields — a stretch of farmland and wetlands near the base of the Wasatch Back.

“Your shortcut is our shortfall,” read a sign held by Greta Andreini, who moved to Heber two years ago after leaving Park City in search of a quieter, more rural home.

“It’s just a gateway for major development all through the valley,” Andreini said of the bypass. “So once it’s built, you can’t go back.”

Protesters held signs reading “Cows over diesel,” “Save the North Fields” and “Stop selling out our valley” as the procession set off. A horse-drawn wagon led the way, followed by tractors, ATVs and families riding in pickup trucks.

Heber Mayor Heidi Franco joined the line, holding a “Protect Farms NOT Diesels” sign and ringing a cowbell from her car window.

The tractorcade followed a roughly six-mile stretch that wound past farms that have defined the North Fields for generations.

The recommended bypass route would cut between Potter Lane and 900 North, directing traffic — especially trucks — west of downtown Heber City to keep highway traffic off Main Street.

UDOT announced the chosen route option in the draft environmental study for the for the Heber Valley Corridor on Jan. 7, according to a news release.

Residents have until March 9 to share feedback about the proposed route before a final decision is made, the release said.

“You don’t have to be a Heber resident to send in a comment to UDOT. You don’t have to live in Heber Valley,” said Bridget Whiting, an organizer of the Heber Valley tractorcade. “They love Heber City because of the beauty. They come up to visit because of that, and if we destroy it, it never comes back, ever.”

The proposed route will impact fewer homes and businesses than the other option identified by transportation officials, project manager Craig Hancock said in the news release. Still, he understands the North Fields are “vital to the essence of the community.”

“We want to do as much as we can to protect this special area,” Hancock said, adding that the transportation department is prioritizing wetland protection and is “committed to preventing new access in the North Fields.”

A pricey highway

Long before tractors rolled through Heber in protest, the idea of a bypass cutting across the valley had lingered in planning discussions — a distant possibility tied to the region’s steady growth.

Steve Farrell, who served 20 years on the Wasatch County Council, said the concept was already circulating when he took office in 2004. But it wasn’t until the past decade, he said, that transportation officials began seriously pursuing it.

Now, Farrell and other area residents are questioning what the project could mean for taxpayers — and where the money would come from.

With an estimated price tag topping $700 million, organizers and residents have nicknamed the Heber Valley Corridor the “billion-dollar bypass.”

Protesters say they want a clear picture of all taxpayer costs — from land acquisition and canal repairs to wetlands, aquifers, and long-term maintenance — before a decision is made.

‘Impossible to farm’

If approved, the bypass would slice through open farmland, multi-generational ranches and a wildlife corridor, organizers said, permanently altering treasured views.

“The North and South Fields are part of our community identity,” Whiting said in a news release. “They are the open views that greet us every morning, the land that reminds us why we chose to live here, and the source of drinking water that flows to Deer Creek Reservoir.”

“Once these fields are gone,” Whiting said, “they are gone forever.”

Farrell estimates about 60 farmers own and work land in the North Fields.

A bypass cutting through the open agricultural landscape — where fields are tilled and horses and cattle roam freely — would fracture working farms and make it “impossible to farm,” he said.

Heber resident Linda Middleton wove among the tractors Saturday, handing out postcards showing the North Fields blanketed in wildflowers.

She worries that could change if construction begins on the bypass — a project she fears could take years and chip away at the valley’s rural charm and the wildlife that calls it home.

“Please don’t have the citizens of Utah pay for the foreseeable future, so that someone can go a little faster through this valley,” Middleton said.

Water concerns

The bypass could threaten drinking water for 1.5 million people across the Wasatch Front and Back, organizers said, all to save roughly 70 seconds of drive time.

Mark Wilson, president of the North Field Irrigation Company, which manages water rights for land in the area, said the North Fields sit on a shallow aquifer, which means the water table is very close to the surface.

For more than a century, farmers have used a system of flooding the fields to irrigate crops, he said, which also helps keep the water table high and feeds drinking water wells across the valley.

Residents worry that building a bypass could disrupt that system and introduce pollutants to the aquifer.

UDOT says both studied routes comply with federal water quality regulations by using mitigation measures — such as erosion control and managing stormwater runoff — to prevent contaminants from reaching the aquifer.

Some protesters, like Andreini, the Heber resident with the “Your shortcut is our shortfall” sign, said they don’t want any bypass cutting through the valley and would rather endure traffic on Main Street than see a new road carve up the North Fields.

Others handed out fliers urging attendees to ask UDOT about the alternative route studied that would run through fewer wetlands and farmland.

Without improvements, however, UDOT has said travel times on U.S. Route 40 could double by 2050, with traffic backups that could stretch more than three miles.

The final environmental study and a decision on the bypass route are expected this summer, according to UDOT.