ST. GEORGE – Roadwork on state Route 9 is scheduled to start anew Monday as construction begins to add and extend passing lanes between Virgin and Rockville.
The Utah Department of Transportation will be:
- adding westbound and eastbound passing lanes from miles 21 to 23.
- adding a westbound passing lane from miles 26 to 27.
- extending the eastbound passing lane between miles 26 and 27.
Two travel lanes in each direction will be open during the day, though motorists should expect intermittent delays during the construction process, UDOT spokesman Kevin Kitchen said Friday. Lane closures with flaggers directing traffic may occur during night work as needed.
The project is estimated to cost $7.5 million and is anticipated to carry through the fall and conclude soon thereafter.
The new work on SR-9 ends a short reprieve from work that began in late 2016 and finished in May involving the reconstruction of SR-9 from Rockville to the entry of Zion National Park. UDOT and local officials celebrated the conclusion of that project with a ribbon cutting in Springdale.
Read more: Springdale, UDOT officials celebrate completion of SR-9 reconstruction
The area around Zion National Park, along with other recreational and tourism hot spots in the state, has been designated by UDOT to receive funding for various road and transportation infrastructure improvements.
Among the improvements is a potential transit system between Springdale and St. George, as well as paving roads that connect SR-9 and SR-59, among other projects.
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I saw this and thought, “Finally! They’re going to fix the deadly road between Hurricane and Hilldale”, but alas, that’s SR-59. There are terrible, deadly head-on collisions out there all the time and its a narrow two lane road with tons of room on either side to add in passing lanes or make it two lanes.
Why, UDOT, with all the money being spent elsewhere is the easy-fix on SR-59 not being pursued? That seems to be a very high-ROI, low-hanging fruit road that never gets any attention, except in the headlines each time there’s a terrible accident there (which are frequent).