Rep. John Curtis, representative for Utah’s 3rd Congressional District, recommended funding one of Holladay’s major infrastructure projects to the House Appropriations Committee, paving the way for potentially millions in federal dollars to overhaul one of the city’s main thoroughfares. 

The recommendation follows Curtis’ visit in March, when the congressmen and local leaders took an abbreviated tour of the city as city officials pitched the third-term representative on a Highland Drive reconstruction project. 

If approved, the award would fast track a long anticipated revamp of a 1.4-mile stretch of Highland Drive from Arbor Lane to Van Winkle Expressway, a critical commercial corridor connecting two of the city’s largest economic hubs: Holladay Hills and Holladay Crossroads.

With an estimated price tag of $3.6 million, the Highland Drive Reconstruction and Complete Street Project aims to enhance multimodal transportation with the addition of buffered bike lanes and sidewalks; the project would also relocate roadway utilities and add a middle turning lane. 

The project is amongst the city’s $75 million in unfunded liabilities, described in the Holladay@20 report as “old bones,” and is part of a much wider need across the state and nation for rehabilitating sub-par infrastructure, which the American Association of Civil Engineers say is chipping away from GDP through diminished productivity. 

In addition to addressing problematic utility and stormwater issues, planners say the reconstruction will reduce pollution by encouraging multi-modal transit while creating safe, walkable routes for students attending nearby public and private schools, including Oakwood Elementary and Bonneville Junior High. 

The project would also advance the community interest in active transportation, which ranked highly in the most recent Community Priorities Survey.

For now the city stands by as the House Appropriations Committee deliberates its final list of  infrastructure initiatives, which will be disclosed in the fall.λ