As Salt Lake City students headed back to class Tuesday, Highland High School began the year with an upgraded crosswalk, easing students’ once dicey dash across 1700 East near 2100 South.
The improved crosswalk started with a resident proposal in 2021 and was picked up through the city’s Capital Improvement Program, Salt Lake City transportation director Jon Larsen said. The initiative funds five to seven resident-submitted projects each year.
“There was a crosswalk there, but it was just paint only,” Larsen said. “It’s a really popular crosswalk for kids getting to and from school. … There’s a lot of speeding on that road and just concern from parents about the safety of that crosswalk.”
The crossing now features a “pedestrian refuge island,” Larsen said, which is a section of concrete in the middle of the street where pedestrians can safely wait to cross both legs of the intersection.
It’s also newly equipped with “rectangular flashing beacons” – blinking lights signaling to drivers that someone is crossing the road – as well as “bulbouts” on the east and west side of the intersection and a raised median.
“If you run into it, it’ll mess your car up,” Larsen said. “We’d rather have that than you hitting a kid.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) A new crosswalk at Highland High School in Salt Lake City on Monday, Aug. 18, 2025.
The crossing is directly north of Parleys Canyon Boulevard, near where the seminary building for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sits across 1700 East from the Highland campus.
The crosswalk was completed about a month ago, Larsen said, noting it took longer than expected due to the dozens of transportation projects the city had committed to as part of an $87 million street bond passed in 2018.
The bond has so far helped upgrade 65 major roadways and neighborhood streets.
At one point, city officials had considered reconstructing that part of 1700 East entirely and combining the Highland High crosswalk upgrades with the project, Larsen said. But they ultimately decided against that, he said.
The crossing cost about $85,000 in total, Larsen said.
The crosswalk is unrelated to the construction planned at Highland High next school year. Highland and West High are both set for complete renovations, after voters approved the Salt Lake City School District’s $730 million bond last November, securing funding for what officials describe as much-needed upgrades.