KVNUFTP

Details of where stimulus dollars will be used here in Utah are beginning to emerge. Bridge repair, pavement projects at the top. Salt Lake Tribune:

Utah previously envisioned snagging about $221 million in stimulus money for road projects (not all of it going to UDOT). That estimate was greatly reduced from a headier wish list of $11 billion.

Commissioner Stephen Bodily urged department officials to emphasize pavement and bridge preservation when deciding what work to advertise first for bids.

“We should be ready to go immediately on preservation,” he said.

The list approved Thursday includes several alterations from a draft considered last week. One is the removal of two major pavement jobs on I-15 in Box Elder County in favor of an $11 million rehabilitation of Wall Avenue in Ogden. The department found that it could use other, routine channels of federal funding on the I-15 work and instead wanted to elevate Wall Avenue, spokesman Nile Easton said.

“Its pavement is in pretty sad shape,” Easton said of the Ogden street. “This way we can take care of that sooner.”

The new list also removes several northern Utah bridges from consideration and instead directs nearly $4 million to Washington County’s Valley View bridge, which was damaged in a 2005 flood.

A $15 million plan to widen U.S. 6, a particularly dangerous highway, in Emery and Carbon counties remains on the project list. So does an $11 million reconstruction of U.S. Highway 491 east of Monticello, a road that locals consider vital to the growing tourism economy in southeastern Utah.

The most expensive item on the list is a $15.4 million pavement overlay from Echo Junction east to Emory on Interstate 80 in Summit County.