The Problem:

Up-front Costs

The estimated cost in 2020—$75 million dollars —was an enormous amount of money. $75m is more than Provo City’s annual General Fund Revenue ($67m), more than the cost of the new Provo City Hall ($65m), more than the first phase of the new Provo Airport ($40m), and enough to fund the entire Provo Police department for nearly four years (at $18m per year). For a 2-mile stretch of roadway, we’re looking at an estimated $38 million dollars per mile in 2020. The American Road and Transportation Builders Association says that building 6-lane interstates costs around $10 million per mile in urban areas. $38 million per mile is an outrageous expense. And this single road widening project costs more than all of the planned roadway projects in Phase I of the Master Plan combined. 

Why does this project cost so much money? Largely because of the homes along 820/800 North Provo City will have to purchase and demolish.

Higher Maintenance Costs,
Lower Property Taxes

Road widening projects are often a lose-lose-lose financially because not only do cities pay massively up front to widen the road, but they also are saddled with increased maintenance costs of a larger road, and decreased property taxes as property-tax-producing buildings are replaced with asphalt that doesn’t pay any tax.

Car Crashes

Wider roads bring more cars and higher speeds. More cars and higher speeds bring more crashes.

Check out UDOT’s map of crashes in Provo for an example. Most of the crashes in Provo happen on large roads with more traffic volume and higher speeds. By widening 820/800North from three lanes to five, history indicates that we will have more injuries and fatalities on that road. And with hundreds of schoolchildren at Freedom Preparatory Academy and Ivy Academy on this road, this is not something we should tolerate.

A Community Barrier

When is the last time you walked across a wide, high-speed road? It’s probably been a while. Most of them are unpleasant to walk across by design–they limit the number of pedestrian and bike crossings to keep people out of the road and cars flowing through quickly. 

Take the new 300 South for example. Though safer and more attractive than the road was before, it is still a barrier between Maeser Neighborhood residents. The “No Pedestrians” sign in the top right corner shows you the intent–to funnel pedestrians to a select few crossings so that cars can drive quickly through the area. On a side note, University Avenue downtown is one of the few examples of a wide, fast road with ample pedestrian crossing points.

• 820/800 North from Geneva Road to 500 West gets 9,200 average daily trips at the busiest section and has decreased from a peak of 9,300 in 2003

• 800 North from 500 West to University Avenue gets 12,000 average daily trips at the busiest section near Utah Valley Hospital.