Utah Transportation Commission
August 19, 2005
Cedar City, Utah

The regular meeting of the Utah Transportation Commission, held in the Cedar City Council Chambers, 10 North Main, Cedar City, Utah, was called to order at 9:03 a.m. by Chairman Glen Brown. He introduced the Commissioners and welcomed those attending.

Approval of Minutes
Commissioner Clyde moved to approve the minutes of the June 30, 2005, Executive Session held in Salt Lake City, Utah. Commissioner Lewis seconded the motion. Commissioner Bodily noted that on the first page, I-15 needed to be changed to I-215. The minutes were approved as amended.

Commissioner Warnick moved to approve the minutes of the July 19, 2005, regular Commission meeting held in Randolph, Utah. Commissioner Lewis seconded the motion. Commissioner Bodily noted that under the list of attendees, the Region One attendees’ locations should say Region One instead of Region Three. The minutes were approved as amended.

Local Area Presentation
Prior to the local area presentation, at the request of Commissioner Clyde, the formal replacement of Commissioner Clyde with Commissioner Millington took place. Chairman Brown expressed his appreciation to Commissioner Clyde for his 12 years of service on the Commission, and welcomed Commissioner Millington to the Commission. Commissioner Clyde and Commissioner Millington both made comments.

Chairman Brown turned the time over to Commissioner Lewis for the local area presentation. Scott Munson, Cedar District Engineer and Tamerha Maxwell, Region Four Project Manager, gave a presentation regarding the spring flooding issues, environmental studies, I-15 rest stops, and projects in Iron and Beaver Counties. Commissioner Lewis turned the time back to Chairman Brown following the presentation.

Public Comments
State Senator Tom Hatch thanked the Commission for coming to Cedar City, and wants them to be aware that there are needs in areas of the state other than the Wasatch Front. Some of the fastest growing areas are in southwestern Utah. The south interchange in Cedar City is vitally important to the citizens in this area. Tremendous growth is taking place and anything to help expedite the interchange would be appreciated.

State Representative DeMar “Bud” Bowman echoed Senator Hatch’s comments, and reiterated the importance of the south Cedar interchange. He commended Mr. Hawks, Mr. Munson, and Commissioner Lewis for their cooperation. He’s proud of this area and appreciates the roads that are built.

State Representative Mike Noel said the region has been very responsive to their needs and the flood repairs were done well. He mentioned a few issues he had regarding the ferry crossing at Lake Powell and the Kanab Creek Bridge, and discussed the R.S. 2477 road issue in more detail.

Gene Roundy, Iron County Commissioner, discussed the proposed road transfers, though it may not be the issue they thought it was at one time. They are opposed to the transfer of the road from Brian Head over to Garfield County. It needs to remain a state highway. He mentioned that the county would consider taking over a section of road north of Paragonah if it were brought up to standard. He would also like UDOT to consider looking at Lund Highway, as they anticipate that more than 200 people will be using it in the future to travel to and from work each day.

Ben Reeves, City Manager of LaVerkin City, distributed a handout titled ‘Hurricane-LaVerkin Walking Bridge – Transportation of Middle School Children.’ He said that the Utah State Department of Education requires that middle school children who live within two miles of a middle school need to walk to the school because they do not have funds to transport those students. Unfortunately, the way the topography is between Hurricane and LaVerkin, the students would either have to jay walk in order to stay within that two mile limit, or they would have to extend their walking path beyond the two miles in order to cross at legally defined paths. The problem is that the bridge connecting Hurricane and LaVerkin has a sidewalk on the east side, but not on the west side. The long term solution is to have some school crossing zones put in, or to have a walking path put in on the west side of the bridge.

Launi Schmutz from the Washington County School District noted that they have a Safety Committee, and asked if UDOT could find a designee to be part of that committee. Also, if the sidewalk had been put on the west side of the bridge instead of the east side, they wouldn’t be here today trying to solve the problem. Jim McConnell from Region Four explained why the decision was made to put the sidewalk on the east side of the bridge instead of the west side. He said if school crossings were put in, there would be a need for a crossing guard.

Mayor Deutschlander from Brian Head asked that SR-143 be kept as a state highway. In addition, the commissioners of Garfield and Iron Counties have approved a citizen’s request to try and get SR-143 designated as an All American Highway or a National Scenic Byway, which could help get travelers off the interstate system and going through communities so they can appreciate the beauty this area has to offer.

Update on the Reauthorization of TEA-21
Linda Hull, Legislative and Government Affairs Director, distributed a handout titled “SAFETEA-LU High Priority Project Earmarks – Final List,’ and said that the new bill’s acronym is SAFETEA-LU, which is Safe Accountable Flexible Effective Transportation Efficiency Act – a Legacy for Users. The new bill divides $286.4 billion over five years, representing a 38% increase in funding over TEA-21, and includes funding for both highways and transit. One of the key provisions of the bill is the guaranteed funding that goes to the states, which will build everyone back up to a 92% return by 2008-2009. That means Utah will receive an average of $282 million per year, a 30.58% increase.

Ms. Hull discussed other key provisions in the bill. She said safety is now a new core highway program. Also, states can transfer up to 10% of safety funds for other needs if they can demonstrate that their safety needs have already been met. There is now a new high-risk rural road program where a certain amount of funding has to be spent on high-risk rural roads. Bridge program funds can now be used for preservation activity, meaning federal funds can be used instead of state funds. Provisions for tolling in the bill makes it much more flexible for states to consider tolling on their facilities. Public/private partnering is another issue that’s been getting a lot of attention, and the bill eased the opportunity for private investment in public infrastructure. Also, the statute of limitations for potential litigation on highways and transit projects was shortened from six years to 180 days, which is a significant improvement. There are some new planning requirements included in the bill, as well as some new discretionary programs.

Ms. Hull discussed Utah specific information. She noted that the Department worked with Congressman Matheson’s office to get US-6 designated as a high priority corridor on the National Highway System. That will allow UDOT to go after a source of discretionary funds to help with projects on US-6. Ms. Hull said earmarks are always present in a federal highway bill, and there was a huge increase for Utah this year. There were 31 projects earmarked for a total of $260 million. However, what appears to be different this year is that for some states, it seems that the earmarks won’t come out of the normal apportionment; it’s additional money. They’re looking into that closely to see what the impact will be on Utah. Ms. Hull referred to the handout titled ‘SAFETEA-LU High Priority Project Earmarks – Final List,’ and said there were some projects the Department endorsed, but there were also a number of projects from local governments that requested earmarks. The concern she has is whether the local governments can spend that money in four years. She would like the Department to coordinate with the local governments to see what will need to be done to get the money spent, whether it’s spent on the earmarked project or a different project.

Renaming of Starvation Bridge
Carlos Braceras, Deputy Director, said a request was received from Duchesne County to rename the Starvation Bridge to the Freedom Bridge. The county will pay for the signs. The Department doesn’t see anything negative with this and supports the county in their request. This doesn’t require any action from the Commission; the Department just wanted the Commission’s input. Mr. Braceras said the Department would proceed with the negotiations with the county.

Request for use of Corridor Preservation Funds

Robert Brietling – Mountain View Corridor
Lyle McMillan, Director of Right of Way, said that all three requests today are on the Mountain View Corridor. The first one is the Brietling property at approximately 2100 South and 5800 West, and is about 32 acres of vacant ground. A lot of it is wetlands, and it’s not in danger of imminent development. Because the fund balance is perilously low, the Advisory Council is recommending that the Commission deny this request so other priorities can be addressed.

Commissioner Lewis moved that the Commission deny the Brietling request. It was seconded by Commissioner Bodily, and motion was approved.

Steven C. and Debra Parton/Penguin Auto – Mountain View Corridor
Mr. McMillan said this is the Parton property, also known as Penguin Auto, a salvage yard just to the south of the Brietling property at 2300 south and about 5700 West. The property owners are requesting that UDOT purchase their property under the hardship provision, as Mr. Parton has taken ill, making it difficult for him to carry on the operation of the business. However, this is one of the most complex acquisition requests the Department has received because of potential contamination issues due to the salvage yard. To purchase the property, make improvements, and relocate all the stuff on the property, it would cost several million dollars. Also, they’re not sure if this property will be in the preferred alternative, as the other alternative being studied is on 7200 West. They’ll know more when the alternative is chosen next year. The Advisory Council is recommending that the Commission decline this application until the preferred alternative is known.

Commissioner Warnick made a motion to deny the request for the Penguin Auto property. It was seconded by Commissioner Wells and the motion for denial was approved.

Butch Johnson – Mountain View Corridor
Mr. McMillan said the Johnson property is in Saratoga Springs, and is about 25 acres in the Mountain View corridor. Mr. Johnson has received preliminary approvals to build 300 condominiums in the middle of the corridor. The Department is already purchasing a piece of property from Mr. Johnson for the Redwood Road expansion project. As part of that acquisition, an appraisal was commissioned on the entire piece of property, so they know how much the property is worth. That appraisal came to about $3 million. Mr. Johnson seems to be a semi-willing seller. The challenge here is if those 300 condos are built, the cost goes from $3 million today for bare ground to potentially $30 – 60 million, depending on property values in the area, possibly making it cost prohibitive. Also, this is one of the few remaining viable alternatives through this area. The Advisory Council recommends the Commission approve about $3 million to make an offer to preserve the corridor.

Commissioner Warnick made a motion that the Commission approve the request for the Johnson property. It was seconded by Commissioner Wilson and approved.

Lake Powell Ferry Update
Director Njord said the Department has struggled for a number of years to contain costs for the operation of the ferry boat service at Lake Powell, which have spiraled out of control over the last seven years. It’s been difficult to control those costs, so he sent a letter to local government officials, school districts, companies, the park service, legislators and others, informing them of UDOT’s intention to shut down the ferry service as of October 1st of this year. Since that letter was sent, he has met with Aramark and the National Park Service, and was told that UDOT didn’t have to contract with Aramark to run the ship. That was news to the Department, as they’ve always been frustrated that they’ve been forced to use the National Park concessionaire to run the ships. It’s never been a competitively bid contract. The other thing brought up in that meeting was that anyone wanting to just pass through the park and not stop, doesn’t have to pay the park entrance fee just to get on the ship and go on through. Previously, anyone entering the park had to pay the fee, no matter what their visit was regarding. Director Njord said he also met with officials from San Juan County and talked with officials from Garfield County on the phone, and discussed their concerns. He’ll meet with them again to see if they can establish some partnerships with the ferry operation. The Department has put one of the ships out to surplus, and interest was received from a company in British Columbia.

Senator Hatch said he was surprised about the pending suspension of the ferry at Lake Powell. There’s no question the state is subsidizing the use of that ferry, but he would argue that there isn’t a stretch of transportation corridor anywhere in the state that isn’t subsidized in one form or another and that they don’t make money on. The ferry operation is an issue of convenience and is important to the tourism industry in that part of the state. Representative Noel echoed what Senator Hatch said. He would support anything that could be done to reduce the costs. He definitely wants to see the ferry operation continue. Additional discussion focused on the subsidizing of roads.

Chairman Brown noted that this issue was not driven by the Commission, but he thinks the issue and debate of the ferry subsidy belongs to the Legislature. The Department needs to ask them if they want to keep subsidizing it or not. Director Njord mentioned that every year the Department goes to the Appropriations Committee to review the entire Department’s budget. When they discuss the costs of the ferry boat operation and how much they are subsidizing it, the question comes back every year, ‘why is the Department doing this?’ but they’ve never told the Department to shut it down. Chairman Brown said he applauds the fact that Director Njord has been able to bring forward some long misunderstood issues. Regardless of where this concludes, there has been some benefit for going through this process.

Director Njord pointed out, at the request of Commissioner Wilson, that one of the discoveries in this process was that there have been about 15 groups that were receiving reduced or free fares to go on the ferry boat. Consequently, a letter was sent to those groups informing them that they will now be paying full fare. In order to make this more viable for UDOT, costs will need to be reduced and revenues will have to be increased. Again, the next step will be to meet with San Juan, Garfield and Kane Counties, as well as the Park Service to discuss partnerships. If they’re willing to contribute towards the operation of the ship, UDOT may be able to continue to run it.

Representative Noel wondered if the Commission could make a motion to get an extension of the October 1st deadline. Commissioner Wilson said he’d like to see things stay status quo and allow Director Njord to continue with the negotiations. He thinks some things could come together in the next 30 days so as to not even need an extension. Director Njord said he thinks Commissioner Wilson’s comments are appropriate. Because there is a deadline, they’ve got everyone’s attention and would like to continue to have their attention until a solution is found. Chairman Brown said they know the feelings of the Commission and the legislators, and recommends running this by the next legislative budget process. To shut it down without the wishes of the Legislature would be a mistake on the Department’s part.

Planning and Programming
Aeronautics
FY-05 CIP Amendment #3
Kirk Nielsen from Aeronautics said the federal fiscal year ends in October and they are seeing a lot of changes and additions to the CIP. There are three new projects that have been added to the CIP, and there are a handful of projects where the sponsors have asked for additional funds or to use their additional entitlement funds. Mr. Nielsen referred to the handout titled ‘Airport Projects Presented to the Utah Department of Transportation Commission,’ and discussed the new projects at Beaver, Logan, and Wendover, as well as those with revised funding, including Duchesne, Hanksville, Parowan, Richfield, Roosevelt, Salt Lake International, Utah Division of Aeronautics, and Vernal. He said they would like to get approval on all those projects with the corresponding funding amounts.

Commissioner Lewis moved to approve CIP Amendment #3. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Bodily and approved.

Aeronautics FY-06 CIP – Information Only
Mr. Nielsen said this is for information only. They have compiled projects to be funded in federal FY 06-12, but they are presenting just the 06-07 projects today. They’d like to give the Commission some time to review the list and will come back next month to seek approval for the 06-07 projects.

2005-2009 STIP Amendment #6-A; Taylorsville City Enhancement Project
Ahmad Jaber, Program Development Director, said this Taylorsville City enhancement project is by the I-215 and Redwood Road interchange. It was recommended as part of the enhancements in 06-07 and is currently in the draft STIP. Once it’s approved, it will part of the STIP for 06-10. However, Taylorsville has the project ready to advertise and would like the Commission to approve it so they can advertise it before October. They are already working on a project on Redwood Road and would like to do this while they’re already ripping things up instead of ripping them up again next year. The caveat is that the motion would be subject to the WFRC approving it in their meeting on August 25.

Commissioner Wells made a motion to approve STIP Amendment #6-A, subject to action taken by the WFRC. It was seconded by Commissioner Warnick and approved.

Kanab Creek Bridge – Funding Increase
Mr. Jaber said this project is in the current STIP in FY-05. The total amount programmed is just over $550,000. The request is add another $507,000 to the project. One cause of the cost increase is the increase in construction costs from last year. Also, the bridge span is larger than originally planned. This project was reviewed by Brett Hadley, UDOT’s local government engineer. He also consulted with the chairman of the Joint Highway Committee.

Commissioner Lewis moved to approve the additional funding request for the Kanab Creek Bridge. It was seconded by Commissioner Wilson and the motion was approved.

Logan Canyon Snowmobile Crossing Project
Mr. Jaber said this issue was discussed at the Commission meeting in Randolph. There are two options for the trail used by recreationalists that crosses the road at the summit in Logan Canyon. One option is an underpass, the other option is an overpass. There are pros and cons to each. There are aesthetic issues with the overpass, but the costs are lower than an underpass. They estimate the cost of an overpass project to be $550,000. There has been a commitment of $100,000 from Parks and Recreation, $40,000 from Cache County, and $20,000 from Rich County, so they are recommending that the Commission approve $390,000 for the project. There was discussion on what effect this snowmobile crossing project will have on the current contractor.

Commissioner Bodily made a motion to proceed with the change order to build the snowmobile structure. It was seconded by Commissioner Warnick and approved.

2006-2010 STIP Approval – For FHWA/FTA Approval
Mr. Jaber said the draft STIP went out for public comment and there were no comments received from the public. Out of the four MPO’s, Cache, MAG, and Dixie have had their TIP’s approved. WFRC’s TIP will be approved in the August 25th meeting. Once the Commission approves the STIP, it will go to the FHWA and FTA for their review and approval.

Chairman Brown brought up the Fremont River Crossing project on page 55, and said this is not a highway need. Al Hendricks from Capitol Reef National Park explained that Capitol Reef applied for funding through the Federal Lands Highway Program and there were two primary objectives. One was to place the Fremont River back in its original channel, approximately 9/10 of a mile around the natural oxbow. The other objective was for safety reasons, due to the waterfall that resulted from the original rechanneling of the river when the reef road was first built. The waterfall has been a site where quite a few accidents have occurred. Mr. Hendricks gave an update on their progress since he spoke to the Commission last October. The first step was to provide opportunity for public comment as part of the scoping process. They received 13 comments as a result. Two were from Indian tribes who had no objections, five were responses asking for consideration of specific issues, and six were comments from people who thought it was not a very good idea. There will be another opportunity for public comment on the proposal itself in the future, once the alternatives are developed.

Chairman Brown said he struggles with this project and whether or not it ought to be funded for $6 million. He respects those who see this differently than he does, but he’s looking for an opportunity to vote his conscience on this particular activity. He guesses he could vote no on the overall STIP, and that would be why he voted no. There was additional discussion to clarify the project on SR-6 at the Apple Bend turn.

Commissioner Warnick made a motion to approve the 2006-2010 draft STIP and forward it to the FHWA and FTA. It was seconded by Commissioner Lewis and approved.

Informational Items

Commission Committee Reports
Commissioner Wells reported on the WFRC and TransCom.

Transportation Commission Meetings
The next regular meeting of the Utah Transportation Commission will be held on Friday, September 23, 2005, in Tooele, Utah. The date and location of the November meeting was discussed. Due to a conflict in Chairman Brown’s schedule, the meeting date was changed to November 10, 2005, and will be held in the afternoon in Provo. Upcoming meeting dates and locations have been scheduled as follows:

• October 21, 2005 – Blanding
  
• November 10, 2005 – Provo
  
• December 9, 2005 – Salt Lake City

The meeting adjourned at 12:35 p.m.

The following Commissioners, staff members and others were in attendance:
Glen E. Brown, Chairman
Stephen M. Bodily, Vice-Chairman
Hal M. Clyde, Commissioner
Jan C. Wells, Commissioner
Bevan K. Wilson, Commissioner
Ken Warnick, Commissioner
Jerry B. Lewis, Commissioner
J. Kent Millington, Commissioner
LeAnn G. Abegglen, Commission Secretary
John Njord, Executive Director
Carlos Braceras, Deputy Director
David K. Miles, Engineer for Operations
Ahmad Jaber, Program Development Director
Tom Hudachko, Director of Community Relations
Linda Hull, Legislative and Government Affairs Director
Lyle McMillan, Director of Right of Way
Pat Morley, Director of Aeronautics
Kirk Nielsen, Aeronautics
Bret Anderson, Program Development
Brett Hadley, Program Development
Dal Hawks, Region Four Director
Scott Munson, Cedar District Engineer
Myron Lee, Region Four
Clark Mackay, Region Four
Tamerha Maxwell, Region Four
Jim McConnell, Region Four
Nathan Merrill, Region Four
Wes Bolinger, FHWA
Joe Brown, GOPB
Senator Tom Hatch, Utah State Senate
Representative Mike Noel, Utah House of Representatives
Representative DeMar “Bud” Bowman, Utah House of Representatives
Gene Roundy, Iron County Commission
Wayne Smith, Iron County Commission
Mayor H.C. Deutschlander, Brian Head Town
Jim Allan, Cedar City
Kit Wareham, Cedar City
Mac J. Hall, Hurricane City
Larry Hutchings, Hurricane City
Ben Reeves, LaVerkin City
Doug Gubler, LaVerkin City
Keith McAllister, Kanab City
Brent Gardner, Alpha Engineering/Kanab City
Lowell Elmer, Dixie MPO
Al Hendricks, Capitol Reef National Park
Launi Schmutz, Washington County School District
Larry Roberts, Vista/Homeland Security
Andy Powell, URS
Nancy Perkins, Deseret Morning News