Adam Snow: For decades, we’ve needed traffic relief

When the last time was you sat in traffic near the St. George Boulevard or Green Springs areas near Interstate 15? Now imagine if you could have simply taken a bypass road to avoid those most congested parts of our county.

Traffic planners have been telling us for decades that, due to our area’s population growth, we will need a road north of downtown St. George that allows traffic to move between the Ivins and Santa Clara areas and the Washington and Hurricane areas. That road, known as the Northern Corridor, will connect Washington Parkway in the Green Springs subdivision to Red Hills Parkway east of the North Blue Street intersection. This will allow traffic to flow from that intersection to the Washington Parkway Exit of Interstate 15 without having to go into downtown St. George or the Red Hills Drive and Mall Drive areas near the St. George Boulevard exit off I-15.

The Northern Corridor has been controversial for decades. In 2020, the federal government gave our state a right of way permit allowing the road to be built. That permit was rescinded in 2024. Now the BLM is considering re-granting the permit. This is great news for our area.

We should all encourage the BLM to allow the road to be built as soon as possible. The Northern Corridor would accommodate anticipated traffic demand and would reduce traffic delays by 300,000 hours per year beyond 2040 as well protect the Bear Claw Poppy and Moe’s Valley areas by adding them to the Reserve. This is a chance to meet our traffic needs and protect a huge open space area of our community.

Washington County, in partnership with area cities and multiple state and federal agencies, created the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve in 1996. The Reserve stretches from the eastern edge of Hurricane to the western edge of Ivins. It is now a treasured part of our community. Unfortunately, the Northern Corridor needs to cross 4 miles in the south-central region of the reserve. While this is an important biological and recreational part of the reserve, it is also an area that includes the old St. George City dump, a power substation, power lines, and a water pipeline. In other words, it has suffered human interference.

To fully offset the negative impacts to biological and recreational resources from the new road, in 2020, stakeholders proposed to add nearly 7,000 acres west of Bloomington and south of Santa Clara to the reserve. This is pristine land which encompasses popular recreational areas, like Moe’s Valley Climbing Area, Green Valley Gap, and Bear Claw Poppy and Zen trail systems.

This new reserve area (which is also known as Zone 6) would have the same protections that make the reserve such a wonderful part of our community. With this addition, the federal land would be more specifically managed to protect threatened and endangered species. Additionally, the federal government has committed to acquire the school trust lands in the reserve, which make up 3,400 acres of the reserve expansion.

Thus ensuring recreational areas and vital wildlife habitat are protected.

Opponents of the Northern Corridor argue the road is not needed and the conservation protections we have proposed will not last. Neither argument holds up to scrutiny.

The Utah Department of Transportation has consistently said that the alternative option the BLM endorsed in 2024 — making Red Hills Parkway a Southern Parkway style expressway — is not feasible. And the protections proposed for Moe’s Valley and Bear Claw Poppy are the same protections that have held up for nearly 30 years on the school trust lands in the Grapevine and Prospector Trail areas of the reserve. No one is talking about developing those areas and no one will talk about developing the Moe’s Valley and Bear Claw Poppy area once those protections are put in place, but we need the Northern Corridor to put these protections in place.

Each of us who sit through multiple traffic lights on the weekends knows there are simply too many vehicles traveling on the roads between St. George Boulevard and Green Springs Drive. It gets worse every year. The federal government has studied this issue for years. The Northern Corridor has been debated for decades. It is time we quit arguing.

We will all benefit from the new road and from expanding the reserve. Let’s protect nonmotorized recreation, improve air quality, and ease traffic congestion. Please add your voice to support the Northern Corridor.

Adam Snow has served as a Washington County Commissioner since 2021 and is currently the Utah Association of County’s First Vice President.

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