Provo City Public Works is finishing the paving phase of the Lakeview Parkway and 2000 North roadway project and plans a community road-safety event once school reopens, city engineers said.

Danielle Nixon, civil engineer with Provo City Public Works, said the project began as a concept in 2007 and required nearly two decades of design, environmental work and combined funding before construction could begin. "We had started this project back in 2007 with just a concept, and it has come to fruition in the past almost 2 decades," Nixon said. She said funding came from the city, the metropolitan planning organization, the county, the state and federal sources.

The project’s purpose, Nixon said, is to improve connectivity on Provo’s Lehi side, including access to Provo Municipal Airport, Epic Sports Park, the new Provo High School campus and the city’s Gateway Park. "It creates connectivity for all of the Lehi side of Provo," Nixon said.

Nixon said most of the roadway is paved but some utility work remains. She described the final roadway width and the multi-use trail as contingent on future development and on installation of utilities by incoming development: "There is a little bit of utility work that still needs to happen as future development comes in. And once that development is in, we can then finish the whole width of the roadway and finish the multi use trail." The multi-use trail connects to the adjacent river trail, Nixon said.

To promote safety and acquaint residents with the new corridor before traffic increases, Provo is organizing a road-safety fun run on Lakeview Parkway. Nixon said the event will take place on the "Sixteenth" along the section shown in this recording and that the city aims to schedule the organized run for the Saturday after school starts at 9 a.m. (the recording identifies August 13 as the school start date). Nixon described the run as a chance for families and children to experience the roadway without traffic and learn safe walking, biking and driving practices: "We're gonna have a fun run that focuses on road safety and being safe as you navigate the roads here in Provo."

The discussion in this recording focused on project history, funding and community benefits; no formal council motions or votes were recorded in the excerpt. Nixon credited collaboration between city leaders and council members for advancing the project from concept to construction.

The city did not provide in this recording a specific completion date for full roadway width or trail construction, nor a detailed funding breakdown by dollar amount. Remaining utility work and the schedule for finishing the multi-use trail were described as dependent on the timing of future private development and utility installations.