New study aims to find solutions to Salt Lake City ‘west-east divide’
SALT LAKE CITY — The city launched a new study Wednesday aimed at finding solutions to what officials characterized as a “west-east divide.”
The two-year study, funded federally under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program, seeks input from residents and creates a paid, community advisory board to look at solutions.
Residents of Salt Lake City’s western neighborhoods have said connectivity could improve and that those commuting to the east side faced accessibility issues due to the railroad tracks and Interstate 15, which both subdivide the city.
“What that looks like for individuals is late to work, late to appointments and just a daily cost added onto your transportation,” said Glendale Community Council chair Turner Bitton.
Bitton said a big part of the issue is there are few options to navigate around trains. He noted the only options in his area are bridges at 1300 South and 400 South, nine blocks apart.
“Folks that are on a short schedule trying to get to work — if a train stops you, that can be a real problem,” Bitton told KSL TV.
Possible solutions
Salt Lake City transportation planner Joe Taylor said the hope was the study could find long-term answers to those problems, and he was open to hearing about solutions large and small.
“The east-west divide is more than just a mobility challenge,” Taylor said. “It’s really about feeling like the west side is under-invested in, (and) doesn’t have the same opportunities, same destinations that the east side does, so getting more into that conversation about what it really means — not just as a mobility challenge but as a psychological and sociological challenge — that’s kind of what we want to get at with the folks who live it every day.”
Taylor said the city was putting together a paid community advisory board and was welcoming applications.
Bitton said he supported the Rio Grande Plan and would like to see railroad tracks in the city buried so trains travel underground.
Taylor said that would amount to an approximately $6 billion project, but he was open to hearing all options.
Bitton said the city had already made some improvements to west-east accessibility.
“We’re standing on what I think is one of the signs of progress that Salt Lake City has made in connecting the east and west side — the ‘9 Line Trail,’ which they recently completed and it runs all the way from Redwood Road all the way east to, I think, 1300 East,” Bitton said.
He hoped the study would result in additional solutions that would improve the quality of life on the west side.
“A local government has limited resources,” Bitton said. “What we need now is to take resources like we’re being given through this study to create a vision for what long-term east-west connections can look like, and that’s going to take everything from federal funding to state funding, (and ) county funding to help make that a reality in the long-term.”
This piece originally appeared on the KSLTV website. Click here to read the original article.