DAVIS COUNTY, Utah, Oct. 18, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — Legacy Parkway’s speed limit will go up on Jan. 1, 2020, and large semis will no longer be banned.
A Utah Department of Transportation news release explained the change.
“UDOT officials announced Friday that with the expiration of the negotiated Legacy Parkway agreement on Jan. 1, the speed limit on the 14-mile, four-lane Parkway will be raised to 65 miles per hour,” the statement says. “Large semi-trucks, banned since the Parkway opened in 2008, will also be allowed to use Legacy.”
The Legacy Parkway Agreement was signed in 2005, ending litigation that brought construction of the roadway located primarily in southern Davis County to a stop, the UDOT statement says. It featured several different elements, most notably the 55 mile per hour speed limit and a restriction prohibiting semi-trucks with five or more axles (or 80,000 pounds or greater gross vehicle weight).
“The Agreement was a great thing because it allowed us to complete a roadway that has made a real difference in mobility in south Davis County,” said UDOT Traffic and Safety Director Robert Miles. “But the Agreement had a sunset date: Jan. 1, 2020. The only way that sunset could be extended is through legislative action, and the legislature has chosen not to extend it. So the agreement expires Jan. 1.”
With the expiration of the agreement, UDOT has no authority to keep large semi-trucks off the roadway, Wight said, “so that change just automatically happens.”
The decision to raise the speed limit to 65 miles per hour is based on UDOT speed studies indicating that drivers are already averaging between 65 and 70 miles per hour on the roadway despite the 55 mile per hour speed limit.
“Legacy Parkway was designed to accommodate speeds higher than 55 miles per hour, so it is safe and comfortable to drive at 65,” Miles said. “We decided to raise the speed limit to a speed that is closer to what drivers are actually driving. In doing so, we hope to eliminate the safety risk of speed discrepancy, which can happen when you have a significant difference between the speed most drivers are actually traveling and those who are driving the posted speed limit.”
The current speed limit and large truck ban remain in effect until New Year’s Day.
Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.
What else is there to say?
Legacy Parkway now “Crappy Parkway”.
What made it worth driving was the quiet and peace of a slower speed limit and no “highway trains” or obnoxious tractor trailers.
Now? No benefit, more speeding, more accidents, more dead people.
Go UDOT! *cough*