UDOT study warns Tooele Valley roads risk severe congestion; east–west links and Mid Valley Highway cited as priorities

State transportation officials and consultants told the Tooele Valley Council of Governments on May 15 that projected population and job growth will sharply increase congestion on state highways in the valley, putting greater pressure on SR‑36, SR‑112 and Sheep Lane and prompting a push for more east–west connections and for progress on Mid Valley Highway.

UDOT’s Jeff Dupont introduced the study and said the intent was to “take a look at what the state road network can handle” as local development proceeds. Parametrix consultants Kai Toyinaka and Charles Allen presented preliminary population, employment and traffic-modeling results they said represent about half of the study work to date.

The study uses locally coordinated forecasts for population and jobs and a UDOT traffic‑forecasting tool to simulate how the state and local networks perform. “One way to think about it is how full is the pipe,” Charles Allen said, describing the model’s color scale for congestion. Allen said existing daily vehicle hours traveled in the valley are about 33,000 per day, with roughly 2,000 of those hours spent in delay, and that the model’s mid‑ and long‑range scenarios push travel hours and delay significantly higher; he…