Mountain View Corridor

The Mountain View Corridor is a freeway under construction in northern Utah that will run along the western periphery of Salt Lake County and south into northwest Utah County. Except for the last several miles on its southern end the Mountain View Corridor is numerically designated as State Route 85 (SR-85)[1] in the Utah state highway system. The entire Mountain View Corridor will be maintained by the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT).

State Route 85
Mountain View Corridor
Mountain View Corridor in red at full build-out
Route information
Maintained by UDOT
Length	35 mi (56 km)
Major junctions
South end	SR-73 in Saratoga Springs
	I-15 in Lehi SR-48 in West Jordan SR-173 in West Valley City SR-171 in West Valley City SR-201 in West Valley City
North end	I-80 in Salt Lake City
Highway system
State highways in Utah Interstate U.S. State Minor Scenic ← I-84 → SR-86

Route description

Mountain View Corridor is an arterial road with a distance of one to two miles parallel on the west to Bangerter Highway (SR-154), built to meet the demand of the growing cities in Salt Lake County. It will start at SR-73 in Saratoga Springs and run north to a junction with a spur of the roadway that runs east to Interstate 15 in Lehi. The spur, designated as 2100 North, also carries the SR-85 designation.

From the junction at 2100 North, the Mountain View Corridor will continue north through Camp Williams into Salt Lake County, running west of Redwood Road (SR-68). Just north of Camp Williams it will curve northwest until it reaches Porter Rockwell Boulevard in Bluffdale. Porter Rockwell Boulevard will be a non-freeway spur of the Mountain View Corridor that runs east to connect with Redwood Road (SR-68) at about 16000 South. It will also serve as the initial access to the southern end of the Mountain View Corridor until portions south of this point are completed.

From Porter Rockwell Boulevard it will continue northwest to 13400 South at about 4800 West in Riverton and then continue north again to 12600 South. From 12600 South it will curve northwest again, crossing Daybreak Parkway (at about 11700 South) in Daybreak—a neighborhood of South Jordan—to the Old Bingham Highway (at about 10200 South) in West Jordan, and then curve slightly back to the northeast until reaches 9000 South just west of 5400 West.

From 9000 South it will head north, crossing over 8200 South, until 7800 South where it will curve northwest to 7000 South at about 6400 West. From 7000 South it will proceed north, crossing 6200 South, to 5400 South (SR-173). From 5400 South it will curve northeast again until it reaches 4100 South in West Valley City at about 5700 West and then head north again, crossing 3500 South (SR-171), to a junction with SR-201.

From SR-201 it will continue north to California Avenue in Salt Lake City. From California Avenue it will finally curve northwest once again before ending at a junction with Interstate 80 at about 6100 West in Salt Lake City (a few miles west of the Salt Lake City International Airport).

Construction

Phases

Plans call for three phases of construction. Upon final completion, the freeway will have five lanes in each direction, including a high-occupancy/toll (HOT) lane. Some sections will also include two-lane frontage roads on both sides of the freeway.

Phase One will including constructing either the outside lanes or two one-way frontage roads for each section of the entire length of the Mountain View Corridor, but not all at the same time. Phase One construction will be completed on the various sections as the need exists and funding permits. For the "outside lanes" sections the two outside lanes of the freeway will be built in each direction. At each future interchange the roadways will curve out to the edges of the right of way where future off-ramps of the freeway will be, creating two one-way intersections. For the "frontage roads" sections, two one-way frontage roads will be on either side of the planned freeway lanes. Two one-way intersections will also be created at each future interchange, just as they will be for the "outside lanes" sections, except that the future off-ramps and on-ramps will connect with the frontage roads prior to and after the interchanges, respectively. (Such frontage roads and interchanges are often referred to as Texas style.) Frontage roads will be built between Old Bingham Highway and Porter Rockwell Boulevard, as well as the 2100 North spur. The remaining sections will have the outside lanes built in Phase One.

Phase Two is where the actual freeway is constructed as needs require and funding permits. By building either the outside lanes or frontage roads in the unique manner that will be done Phase One preserves space in the middle to build overpasses and the actual freeway lanes themselves where only the frontage roads were constructed. Also, having been built the way they were, there will be minimal traffic interruption while Phase Two is completed.

Phase Three will widen the freeway from two lanes to five in each direction (with one of those lanes provisioned as an HOT lane), again as the need exists and funding permits.[2]

In mid-2010, Utah County planners discussed future plans for a freeway in Utah County from Lehi to Santaquin along the west side of SR-68 west of Utah Lake. It has been speculated that this could become part of the Mountain View Corridor project.[3]

The first sections of Mountain View Corridor opened for traffic in a design of separated two lane carriageways with signal controlled at-grade split intersections, to be upgraded later.

Progress

The environmental impact statement for the freeway was completed in November 2008,[4] leaving funding for the highway as the biggest remaining obstacle. Previous proposals included raising the state fuel tax or tolling the new road as a public/private partnership, an issue that became highly contentious.[5] Ultimately, the state legislature decided to issue bonds to fund the freeway, thereby committing future tax receipts to pay for it.[6] The first phase of construction began in mid-2010 and finished by December 15, 2012.[7][8]

Construction on the spur that runs along 2100 North in Lehi's street grid and will connect the eventual freeway with Interstate 15 began in late 2010. This spur, which initially travels as far west as Redwood Road (SR-68), opened September 24, 2011.[9][10] During Phase Two, this spur will be extended further west to the future freeway.

Construction on two miles of frontage roads in Herriman between Rosecrest Drive and 12600 South has been completed and this portion opened for traffic on June 2, 2012. An additional seven miles of frontage road is nearly complete and is anticipated to be open for use on October 13, 2012. These additional portions are will extend the usable roadway from Porter Rockwell Boulevard in Bluffdale north to the Old Bingham Highway in West Jordan. Six more miles of frontage road further north are also anticipated to be completed in late 2012. By the end of 2012 a total of fifteen miles of Phase One frontage roads, extending from Porter Rockwell Boulevard north to 5400 South in West Valley City, will be open for use, as well as associated bike lanes and trails.[11] In 2016 the access to 5400 South (SR-173) completed, and construction continued northbound.[12]

While no specific time table has been given by UDOT for the remainder of the overall project, it is anticipated to be fully completed by 2030.[11]

Current progress

Mountain View Corridor is currently entirely in Stage 1 of the construction plan. The entire roadway that is currently built extends from Redwood Road (SR-68) to 4100 South. The section between 5400 South and 4100 South opened on November 18, 2017 at 3:00 pm. Opening celebrations included a fun run, an ugly sweater competition, and ceremonies where the Mayor of West Valley City spoke.[13] Mountain View Corridor is expected to be completed up to SR-201 to be completed by summer 2021. It is currently unknown as to when it will be completed up to Interstate 80.

Exit list

This following table lists the interchanges of the Mountain View Corridor at full build-out.

County	Location	mi[14]	km	Destinations[15]	Notes
Utah	Saratoga Springs	0.000	0.000	Foothill Boulevard south	Continuation south beyond southern terminus
				SR-73 west (Cory B. Wride Memorial Highway) – Eagle Mountain, Cedar Fort, Fairfield, Rush Valley SR-145 east (Pioneer Crossing) – Lehi, American Fork	Southern terminus
				Harvest Hills Boulevard	Split intersection with future frontage slip roads
	Lehi	2.977	4.791	SR-194 east (2100 North)	System (freeway to freeway) interchange: spur to SR‑68 (Redwood Road) and on to I‑15
Salt Lake	Bluffdale	3.528	5.678	SR-131 east (Porter Rockwell Boulevard)	Texas-style frontage roads with slip roads
	​	5.759	9.268	Real Vista Drive	Split intersection, future frontage road slip ramps
		6.565	10.565	Rosecrest Drive	Split intersection, future frontage road slip ramps
	Riverton	7.905	12.722	13400 South	Split intersection, future frontage road slip ramps
	Herriman–Riverton line	8.916	14.349	12600 South	Split intersection, future frontage road slip ramps
	Herriman–South Jordan line	9.968	16.042	11800 South	Split intersection, future frontage road slip ramps
	South Jordan	10.260	16.512	Daybreak Parkway	Split intersection, future frontage road slip ramps
		11.330	18.234	South Jordan Parkway	Split intersection, future frontage road slip ramps
	West Jordan	12.461	20.054	Old Bingham Highway	Split intersection, future frontage road slip ramps
		13.917	22.397	SR-209 (9000 South) – Copperton, Sandy	Split intersection, future diamond interchange
		15.454	24.871	7800 South	Split intersection, future diamond interchange
	West Valley City	17.652	28.408	6200 South	Split intersection, future diamond interchange
		18.658	30.027	SR-173 (5400 South) – Kearns, Taylorsville, Murray	Split intersection, future diamond interchange
		20.839	33.537	4100 South	Split intersection, future single-point urban interchange
				SR-171 (3500 South) – Magna, South Salt Lake, Millcreek	Split intersection, future single-point urban interchange
				2700 South	Southbound entrance, northbound exit; diamond interchange
	West Valley City–Salt Lake City line			SR-201 – Magna, South Salt Lake	System interchange
	Salt Lake City			California Avenue (1400 South)	Split intersection, future diamond interchange
				I-80 west – Tooele, Wendover, Reno (Nevada) I-80 east – I‑15, Wanship, Coalville, Evanston (Wyoming)	Northern terminus; trumpet interchange
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Unopened

References

1. "State Routes in Region 2". Utah Department of Transportation. Retrieved March 11, 2010.
2. "Lehi, UDOT compromise on corridor". Deseret Morning News. Salt Lake City. Archived from the original on June 2, 2008. Retrieved March 11, 2010.
3. Utah County planners seek to avoid Lehi-like traffic woes. Deseret Morning News. May 11, 2010.
4. "Feds approve Mountain View Corridor". Daily Herald. Provo. Retrieved March 11, 2010.
5. "Foes of Mountain View toll road form group". Deseret Morning News. Salt Lake City. Retrieved March 11, 2010.
6. "Huntsman signs state transportation project bills". Daily Herald. Provo. Retrieved March 11, 2010.
7. "Salt Lake County construction project". Utah Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved September 12, 2011.
8. "MountainView Corridor Construction". Utah Department of Transportation. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
9. "Construction on Mountain View Corridor finally underway". KSL. Retrieved March 11, 2010.
10. "2100 North: One-way gets you there better". Utah Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on September 24, 2011. Retrieved September 12, 2011.
11. "Mountain View Corridor". Utah Department of Transportation. Retrieved September 25, 2012.
12. Google Earth ans Street View, retrieved March 2017
13. "UDOT completes 2.2-mile expansion of Mountain View Corridor". KSTU. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
14. UT-85 Highway Reference (Report). Utah Department of Transportation. December 11, 2018. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
15. "Mountain View Corridor". Utah Department of Transportation. Retrieved August 9, 2010.

External links

• Mountain View Corridor Official Site
• Utah Department of Transportation