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 said later projections show daily vehicle hours approaching 100,000 by midcentury under the study’s growth assumptions. Kai Toyinaka summarized the long‑term forecasts: current population “just under 80,000” and employment near 20,000 are projected to grow by about 40,000 people and to approach “almost 70,000” jobs over the next 30 years, figures he said came from coordination with local governments and development information.

The presenters said state‑owned roads will take the largest share of increased delay. Allen called the cluster around Sheep Lane, SR‑112 (also cited as 112/138/181 in the presentation) and SR‑36 “kind of a triangle of doom” and showed maps in which corridors that are green today move into heavy orange and red in near‑term model years without additional improvements.

Local officials pressed UDOT on what can be done and who pays. A council member asked why projects in the Wasatch Front get priority; Dupont and other UDOT staff acknowledged statewide funding limits and said the study’s purpose is to identify the projects that make the biggest difference so the region can better argue for funding. “It is going to need to be a shared solution,” Dupont said, adding that local network improvements will be important alongside state projects.

Officials and the consultants discussed candidate responses, including added capacity, flexible/reversible lanes, shoulder running and stronger east‑west connections. Regarding reversible or movable‑barrier lanes, Kai Toyinaka noted operational and cost challenges but said the technique “is not something that should be discarded as an option.” Dupont said UDOT is analyzing concepts such as shoulder running and limited widening on other state corridors (he cited prior requests coming to the agency from its leadership) but stressed billions of dollars of statewide unfunded needs will limit how fast work can proceed.

Presenters said the study’s modeled network assumes currently programmed and funded UDOT projects (including some widening work and the southern portion of Mid Valley); the central unfunded segment of Mid Valley is not assumed in the baseline model and remains a key gap. Toyinaka said the study team is producing scenarios that add local or additional state pieces to quantify which interventions most reduce delay. “We took the population and employment and we fed it into the model…and then from that, we get traffic forecast,” he said; the team intends to follow with an evaluation of candidate projects and a recommended network.

Local leaders repeatedly pressed for short‑term “low hanging fruit.” One official urged quick work on the south end of Mid Valley to get traffic toward Sheep Lane and out to I‑80. UDOT staff and the consultants said short connectors and targeted intersections could provide near‑term relief while the longer, central Mid Valley segment is planned and funded. Dupont said the agency is updating its long‑range plan on a four‑year cycle and that the analysis will inform future updates.

No formal action was taken at the COG meeting on the study; UDOT staff said they will return with more specific project‑level recommendations and scenario results after they complete the remainder of the modeling.

Ending: The study frames Tooele Valley growth as a mix of state and local responsibilities: UDOT and consultants concluded state roads will bear a disproportionate share of future delay while local east–west connections and coordinated planning will be required to reduce risk. UDOT told the COG it will use the study to prioritize projects and said the valley’s leaders should coordinate locally to strengthen funding requests to the state and legislators.