Utah's Unified Transportation Plan: 2011 – 2040, is the result of years of collaborative work by Utah's four Metropolitan Planning Organizations (Wasatch Front Regional Council, Mountainland Association of Governments, Dixie MPO and Cache MPO), UDOT and UTA.  The local/regional long-range plans from those organizations have been combined into one Unified Plan, with common planning time horizons, funding and growth assumptions, and modeling approaches.

The Plan also builds on the Wasatch Choice for 2040 planning effort, and the pioneering work of Envision Utah.

The Unified Plan is comprehensive: it addresses state roads, local roads and transit.  It considers the need for new transportation capacity, and also preservation, maintenance and operation of our transportation facilities.  You can access an electronic copy of the Unified Plan by clicking HERE.

Utah is the only state in the Nation to have a Unified Plan like this.  This has not gone unnoticed – recently, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visited Utah.  Here is a picture of Secretary LaHood holding up the Unified Plan and citing it as a model for the NatioAnother recent visitor to Utah was Janet Kavinocky, who is the Director of Transportation for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  She came away very impressed, and wrote a great article called “Utah: What’s the Secret Sauce? ” (you can access the article by clicking HERE).  In that article, she said “The Unified Plan brings together the plans and visions of the state and the metropolitan planning organizations, articulates a set of common, coordinated assumptions about growth and financing, and produced a statewide, prioritized project list covering 2011-2040.” 

The plan is a result of many people – elected officials, planners, engineers, and others – from across the Wasatch Front and Utah, working collaboratively.  One of the reasons that Utah’s economy has been strong and has outperformed most other states is the solid investment we have made in transportation infrastructure – both roads and transit, and increasingly, bike and pedestrian infrastructure.  The significant investments that the Legislature, local governments, and voters have approved have not only created thousands of private-sector engineering and construction jobs, but they have also allowed us to keep pace with the rapid growth Utah has experienced.  This has facilitated mobility, which in turn promotes economic development and business attraction and retention, as well as quality of life.

As we look ahead to the future, Utah faces important choices about how we will address the continued projected population and job growth, as well as important issues such as air quality.  I strongly believe that continuing to make wise investments in our transportation infrastructure is key to our ongoing success.  Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan provides us a roadmap for the future.  We look forward to continuing to work with all of you to implement the Unified Plan for the benefit of all Utahns.

You can find the Wasatch Choice for 2040 website here.