Mountain View Corridor, Utah (SR-85)

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jackal
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Mountain View Corridor, Utah (SR-85)

Post by jackal »

This will eventually form a ten lane (D5M), 35 mile western bypass of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area.

It is being built in stages, with the freeway first in some areas, the service roads first in others. An interactive map provides good detail:

https://uplan.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Stor ... 0bfe377679

The latest section, from 4100 South to S.R. 201, opened to traffic on 17 June.

https://www.udot.utah.gov/connect/2021/ ... h-s-r-201/
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c2R
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Re: Mountain View Corridor, Utah (SR-85)

Post by c2R »

Thanks for posting this, it's really interesting to see (as someone that had an enjoyable couple of days in Salt Lake city a few years ago). There definitely was a lot of traffic....
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Re: Mountain View Corridor, Utah (SR-85)

Post by mikehindsonevans »

I remember enjoying the clean air of Utah in 1993 and 1994. However, when I took my late wife's ashes to Utah in 2000 I had noticed the brown stain of air pollution rolling up the Wasatch front to the east.

Despite a tram line for the 2002 winter Olympics, traffic was already growing.
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Peter Freeman
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Re: Mountain View Corridor, Utah (SR-85)

Post by Peter Freeman »

That detailed map makes a nice browse.

The southern half, with D3M inner express carriageways flanked by signalised D2HS C-D roads, will be impressive. Google Maps shows most of this half already built, but as the signalised C-D roads only, as you say Jackal. Grade-separated freeway to be inserted later.

Most (all except the I80 connection) of the northern half is built too: initially-narrow freeway carriageways, but also not yet GSJ'd. The exception is the route 201 interchange: currently a not-quite-full-freeflow design, which might be temporary. It appears that this half will eventually be D5M, without C-D's, but I think I see an inner express lane there too - so D(5+1)M ... ?

From GMaps a probable southwards reservation can be spotted, beyond the publicly released route.

It will be a neat road when finished. Modern American in its style. Lots of space around there.

Edit: D(5+1)M
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Re: Mountain View Corridor, Utah (SR-85)

Post by jackal »

Peter Freeman wrote: Tue May 16, 2023 13:04 That detailed map makes a nice browse.

The southern half, with D3M inner express carriageways flanked by signalised D2HS C-D roads, will be impressive. Google Maps shows most of this half already built, but as the signalised C-D roads only, as you say Jackal. Grade-separated freeway to be inserted later.

Most (all except the I80 connection) of the northern half is built too: initially-narrow freeway carriageways, but also not yet GSJ'd. The exception is the route 201 interchange: currently a not-quite-full-freeflow design, which might be temporary. It appears that this half will eventually be D5M, without C-D's, but I think I see an inner express lane there too - so D(5+1)M ... ?

From GMaps a probable southwards reservation can be spotted, beyond the publicly released route.

It will be a neat road when finished. Modern American in its style. Lots of space around there.

Edit: D(5+1)M
The 201 interchange has its mainlines and right turns already, but not the left turns. It seems it will not be quite full access when complete - I'm not sure why a second loop, creating a full cloverstack, isn't planned, as it looks like there's the space (though could be vertical alignment issues).

For such an impressive scheme there is some astonishingly short (~500m) mainline merge-diverge spacing, e.g., between 5400 and 6200 South. Perhaps the most egregious are where slips from service roads rapidly merge and diverge, e.g., between 11800 and 12600 South. Surely there's no excuse for mainline weaving with purpose built service roads. (See also thread about the similar project in Calgary: viewtopic.php?p=1127117)
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Re: Mountain View Corridor, Utah (SR-85)

Post by Peter Freeman »

^ Agreed - the southern half has very short junction spacing. But USA is not as averse to this as UK. On a Kansas City route that I travelled every day for a whole week, there was a point where I joined a D3 freeway from a single lane ramp on the nearside edge, to leave it only about 300m (IIRC) later on the offside! I gradually got quite good at it ... but always off-peak.

At the risk of bringing this up too often, I think USA's and AU's laissez-faire lane selection mitigates the problem, relative to UK. We have no compunction against selecting lane 1 and passing multiple slower vehicles that are in lane 2, before exiting. In the UK, moving left early is perhaps less appealing, as you might have to slow down far earlier than you'd wish. I'm not sure about this theory though.

I think more lanes mitigates weaving issues too.

Here are some spacing statistics.
(all in km, and slightly pessimistic since some interchanges are single-sided)
(these are interchange centre-to-centre: merge-to-diverge is 700-1100m less)

033/20 = 1.6 Mountain View Boulevard (the currently-open length)
058/27 = 2.1 M60 UK, complete circuit
096/44 = 2.2 M1 AU, Melbourne, east edge to west edge
100/43 = 2.3 M1 AU, Brisbane to Gold Coast
190/31 = 6.1 M25 UK, complete circuit
310/47 = 6.6 M1 UK, end-to-end

The table confirms your view on MVB, though it will be a very capable road for a small city. It also confirms the difference between urban and rural motorways.

I'd suggest that MVB south could keep its spacing as-is on the service roads, but alternate the on- and off-ramps for the eventual D3 freeway (or: delete every second freeway interchange). That means about 50% of freeway traffic aiming for cross-routes would need to negotiate two sets of traffic signals instead of one. I actually thought a lot in the past about a rather similar scheme as a safety upgrade for Coventry's scary inner ring road.
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Re: Mountain View Corridor, Utah (SR-85)

Post by jackal »

Thanks for that. I agree with deleting some of the slips. In places where there is enough demand for every slip, braiding should be considered - though at least for most of this route that should not needed.
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