U.S. Route 40 in Utah

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U.S. Route 40
Defined by Utah Code ยง72-4-107, maintained by UDOT
Length: 174.624 mi[1] (281.030 km)
Formed: 1926
West end: I-80 at Silver Creek Junction (north of Park City)
Major
junctions:
US-189 in Heber City
US-191 in Duchesne
US-191 in Vernal
North end: US 40 at the Colorado state line (west of Dinosaur, CO)
State Routes in Utah
< SR-39 SR-42 >

The west end of U.S. Route 40 is in the U.S. state of Utah at Silver Creek Junction (about 20.7 miles west of Salt Lake City) with Interstate 80. From there it heads southeast through Heber City and east into Colorado on its way to the Mid-Atlantic.

Contents

[edit] Route description


[edit] History

See also: Lincoln Highway in Utah and Wendover Cut-off

As with most states, US-40 follows the Victory Highway through Utah. This auto trail was organized in 1921, and overlapped the older Lincoln Highway through Salt Lake City. To the west, it split from the Lincoln at Mills Junction, and took a straight path across the Great Salt Lake Desert on the proposed Wendover Cut-off to Nevada. The east split with the Lincoln was at Kimball Junction, where the Victory turned to the southeast over an old trail that led past Heber City, over Daniels Pass, and along the Strawberry River and Duchesne River to Fort Robidoux. The highway continued east across a relatively flat area through Vernal to Colorado.[2][3]

The Utah State Road Commission took over the highway from Kimball Junction to Colorado in 1910 and 1911,[4] and assigned the State Route 6 designation to this route by the mid-1920s.[3] (The rest of the Victory Highway, west to Nevada, was part of State Route 4, which continued northeast from Kimball Junction to Wyoming, and was taken over west of Kimball Junction from 1910 to 1915.[5]) In late 1926, the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) assigned US-40 to this cross-state route, consisting of most of SR-4 and all of SR-6.[6] (The SR-6 designation remained until the 1977 renumbering; SR-4 became SR-2 in 1962 and was eliminated in favor of I-80 in 1977.)

The old Lincoln Highway east of Kimball Junction was initially US-530, but in the late 1930s it became part of US-189.[citation needed] The split between US-40 and US-189, formerly the junction of the Victory and Lincoln Highways, was moved east from Kimball Junction to Silver Creek Junction in 1952; this change moved both routes to a new road between Keetley Junction and Silver Creek Junction, and renumbered the road between Kimball and Silver Creek Junctions from US-189 to US-40.[4] The old road between Keetley and Kimball Junctions became State Route 248.[7] In 1974, with its replacement - Interstate 80 - almost complete across California, Nevada, and Utah, the three states applied to AASHO to truncate US-40 to Silver Creek Junction. (US-40 had been removed west of Truckee, California in 1964.) AASHO approved the truncation on June 17, 1975.[8]

[edit] Realignments


[edit] Major intersections

County Location Mile[1] # Road(s) Notes
Summit 0.000 1 I-80 - Cheyenne, WY, Salt Lake City Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
1.309 2 Silver Summit
3.998-4.046 4 Park City, Kamas, Francis (SR-248)
Wasatch 8.246 8 Mayflower (SR-319 east)
13.248 SR-32 north
Heber City 17.006 SR-113 south (100 South)
17.945 US-189 south
Duchesne 68.247 SR-208 north
Duchesne 85.931 SR-311 north (22220 West)
86.434 US-191 south (100 West) West end of US-191 overlap
86.524 SR-87 north (Center Street)
109.538 SR-87 west (3000 South)
Roosevelt 114.576 SR-121 north (200 North)
Uintah 130.450 SR-88 south
Vernal 143.787 SR-121 west (500 West)
144.285 US-191 north (Vernal Avenue) East end of US-191 overlap
Naples 148.242 SR-45 south (1500 East)
157.109 SR-149 north (9500 East)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Utah Department of Transportation, Highway Reference Information, accessed July 2007
  2. ^ Froiseth, B.A.M., Map of the Territory of Utah, 1870
  3. ^ a b Rand McNally Auto Road Atlas, 1926, accessed via the Broer Map Library
  4. ^ a b Utah Department of Transportation, Route 6 history, updated September 2005
  5. ^ Utah Department of Transportation, Route 4 history, updated September 2005
  6. ^ United States System of Highways, November 11, 1926
  7. ^ Utah Department of Transportation, Route 248 history, updated December 2005
  8. ^ Utah Department of Transportation, Route 40 history, updated October 2005


U.S. Route 40
Previous state:
Nevada
Utah Next state:
Colorado