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UDOT wins roughly $9 million grant to fence 23-mile corridor, retrofit three underpasses
Summary
A Utah Department of Transportation representative said the agency received a rural subgrant of just over $9,000,000 to fence 23 miles between Fruitland and Starvation Reservoir, retrofit three underpasses and build a new underpass to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions on an oil-and-gas corridor.
“We just won a grant for just over $9,000,000 to fence 23 miles between Fruitland and Starvation Reservoir,” a Utah Department of Transportation representative said. “It's to retrofit 3 existing underpasses that are getting a lot of use by deer right now and then build an all new underpass.”
The project, described as part of a rural subgrant, targets a corridor used by both wildlife and heavy oil-and-gas trucks. The UDOT representative said site visits will determine the precise location for the new underpass within that corridor.
“The area is especially important too because it's a corridor for oil and gas trucks, and so those big trucks are a big danger to animals,” the representative said, adding that officials expect heavy-truck traffic in the corridor to increase: “They they think it will double in the next 10 years.”
UDOT framed the work as both an ecological and public-safety measure. “From a public safety standpoint, each 1 of these collisions has the chance of being a minor to major to even fatal injury or death. And so that's that's UDOT's real goal is to make sure that we are cutting down on those collisions and making sure that UDOT travelers are safe, Utah's travelers are safe,” the representative said.
Details provided in the meeting: the award is for just over $9,000,000; the planned work covers about 23 miles; three existing underpasses will be retrofitted and one new underpass will be built. The representative described the grant as a rural subgrant but did not specify the awarding program or grantor agency.
No formal vote or regulatory citation was announced during the remarks, and the timeline for construction, specific sites for the new underpass, and a complete funding breakdown beyond the grant amount were not specified.
UDOT officials said they will perform site visits to refine locations and plans. The agency said the effort aims to improve wildlife connectivity across the corridor while reducing the risk of collisions for motorists and large commercial vehicles.
