Utah State Route 30

State Route 30
Bear Lake Scenic Byway
Valley View Highway
Route information
Defined by Utah Code §72-4-108
Maintained by UDOT
Length: 135.620 mi[2] (218.259 km)
223 miles (359 km) with implied connections[1]
Existed: 1966 – present
Major junctions
West end: SR 233 near Montello, NV
  I-84 near Snowville
I-15 near Tremonton
US-89 / US-91 in Logan
US-89 in Garden City
East end: WYO 89 near Bear Lake
Highway system

State highways in Utah
Interstate • US • State (Parks) • Scenic

SR-29 SR-31

State Route 30 (SR-30) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Utah. It is the only highway signed as a Utah state route (with the beehive shaped route marker) to traverse the entire width of the state. Legislatively the highway exists as 3 separate segments. The three sections are easily connectable via Interstate 84 and U.S. Route 89. With these implied connections, the highway is drivable as a continuous route from Nevada to Wyoming. The western segment is a historic corridor paralleling both the First Transcontinental Railroad and the California Trail. A portion of the eastern segment has been designated the Bear Lake Scenic Byway as part of the Utah Scenic Byways program.[3]

Contents

Route description

SR-30 starts at the Nevada state line connecting with SR 233 and loosely follows the original route of the First Transcontinental Railroad and the California Trail around the north shore of the Great Salt Lake. The only towns along this section are Rosette and Park Valley. The highway connects with I-84 near Snowville. I-84 and I-15 connect the western segment with the central segment.

The central section begins near Tremonton just north of the separation of I-84 from I-15. It travels due east through a gap in the Wellsville Mountains created by the Bear River. The highway crests a hill and has a view of Cache Valley which gives the highway its nickname, the Valley View Highway. The central section joins US-89 in downtown Logan. US-89 connects the central segment with the eastern segment.

The eastern section branches of from US-89 at Garden City and follows the south shore of Bear Lake to Laketown. The highway then cuts across to the Wyoming state line where it continues as WYO 89.

History

The western portion follows the general corridor used by the California Trail, as well as the First Transcontinental Railroad, completed in 1869. This portion of the railroad was bypassed with the construction of the Lucin Cutoff across the Great Salt Lake. Later the road would be part of the Midland Trail, and it was added to the state highway system in 1912.[4][5][6] The entire roadway from Nevada via Snowville to Tremonton remained a state highway through 1925,[7] but in 1927 the portion west of Curlew Junction was dropped, with the remainder serving as part of U.S. Route 30S (US-30S), designated in 1926, which continued northwest to Idaho.[8][9] The road to the Nevada state line, where it continued as SR 30, was restored in 1931 as State Route 70.[10]

The central portion, between Tremonton and Logan, was added to the state highway system in 1931 as SR-102 (Tremonton to Deweyville) and SR-69 (Deweyville to Logan).[11] From 1938 until the mid-1950s, the SR-69 portion was marked as US-89, which, instead of overlapping US-91, followed the longer all-weather route from Brigham City into the Cache Valley.[12][13][14] Various cutoffs were formed at the west end: State Route 154 came first in 1933, connecting SR-41 (now SR-82) in Garland with SR-69 near Collinston via Garland Road.[15] State Route 85 was built in 1940 as a federal aid project, connecting SR-41 (now SR-13) in Riverside with SR-154, and numbered by the legislature in 1945,[16] only to be given back to the county in 1953.[17] The roadway from Riverside east to SR-154 was brought back into the state highway system in 1962 as part of SR-84, which was to end at a junciton with the proposed I-15 between Riverside and Collinston. When SR-154 was deleted in 1969, the SR-84 designation was extended east to Collinston, replacing part of that route.[18] By 1982, proposed I-15 had been moved west to its current alignment north of Tremonton, and a new State Route 129 was created to connect it with Riverside. For continuity, SR-13 (which had replaced SR-84 in 1977) was cut back to Riverside, with the Riverside-Collinston portion also becoming SR-129.[19] In 1969 the piece east of Bothwell Junction became part of a western extension of SR-102.[20]

The portion east of Garden City was added to the state highway system in 1910 (Garden City to Sage Creek Junction) and 1915 (Sage Creek Junction to Wyoming).[21][22] The former became part of SR-3 in the 1920s,[23] and in 1927 the legislature added the latter as a branch of that route,[24] only to split it off as State Route 51 in 1931.[25] SR-3 was renumbered to SR-16 in 1962.[21]

In 1966, the counties in northern Utah requested that the State Road Commission designate a single route number to run east–west across that part of the state. Since Nevada's portion or the highway, connecting to US 40 at Oasis, was numbered SR 30 (changed to SR 233 in the late 1970s), Utah selected that number, and requested that Wyoming similarly redesignate their Highway 89, which connected to US 30N (now US 30) at Sage. (Wyoming never did so.) The former SR-30 in Sanpete County was renumbered SR-117. However, unlike other renumberings, the commission did not request that the legislature change the legal descriptions; instead, since such a change "would involve a tremendous number of changes in our present record keeping system", the old numbers were kept and marked on small rectangular signs below the SR-30 shields. SR-30 was marked along the following routes:[26]

In the 1977 renumbering, the legislative designation was changed to SR-30, except on the portions that were signed as U.S. or Interstate Highways (hence the gaps at I-84 and US-89). No signage changes were required except for the removal of the rectangular signs below the SR-30 shields. In 1989, the commission resolved that, once I-15 was completed north of Tremonton, SR-30 would be rerouted to replace SR-129, with SR-102 and SR-69 (now SR-38) being extended back to Deweyville and Collinston.[26]

Major intersections

County Location[27] Mile[2] Junction Notes
Nevada state line
Box Elder 0.00 SR 233 – Montello, Oasis
8.733 Grouse Creek - Lucin
24.771 Watercress former rail siding on the First Transcontinental Railroad
56.346 Jct - California Trail
64.655 Kelton former rail siding on the First Transcontinental Railroad
74.693 SR-42 west - Malta Curlew Junction/former U.S. Route 30S
90.347 I-84 – Snowville Park Valley Interchange
90.615 Route Ends
90.616 Route Resumes
90.698 I-15 – Tremonton, Malad Riverside/Logan Interchange
Riverside 91.901 SR-13 – Riverside
93.150 SR-81 – Fielding
94.847 Union Pacific Railroad
94.953 SR-38 – Deweyville
97.748 Cutler Dam
Cache 102.347 SR-23 – Petersboro, Mendon
102.575 Union Pacific Railroad
Logan 108.661 SR-252 1000 West
109.163 Union Pacific Railroad
109.930 US-89 / US-91 – Brigham City, Smithfield, Bear Lake Route Ends
Rich Garden City 109.931 US-89 Paris Route Resumes - Begin Bear Lake Scenic Byway
113.864 Ideal Beach
117.947 Rendezvous Beach
Laketown 119.711 Main Street End Bear Lake Scenic Byway
131.686 SR-16 – Randolph Sage Creek Junction
135.620 WYO 89 to US 30 – Kemmerer
Wyoming state line

References

  1. ^ Dan Stober. "Utah Highways Routes 21-40". http://members.aol.com/utahhwys/021-040.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-10. 
  2. ^ a b "Route Description 0030P". Utah Department of Transportation. http://www.dot.utah.gov/main/uconowner.gf?n=7043101423294856. Retrieved 2008-02-21. 
  3. ^ "Utah Scenic Byways - Bear Lake". Utah Office of Tourism. http://www.utah.com/byways/bear_lake.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-10. 
  4. ^ Second Biennial Report of the State Road Commission to the Governor of Utah for the Year 1911 and 1912, p. 162: note precincts such as Park Valley and Lucin
  5. ^ Third Biennial Report of the State Road Commission, 1915, p. 65: "In May, 1912, a road to pass west from Snowville through Park Valley, Rosette and Lucin to the Utah-Nevada line was designated as a State Road. At the following session of the State Legislature, an appropriation of $15000 was made to help in the construction of this road. This appropriation was part of the "Midland Trail" building fund, the Midland Trail being a proposed highway entering the State through Grand County on the east, thence through Emery, Carbon, Utah, Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and thence west through Box Elder County around the north end of Great Salt Lake."
  6. ^ Utah Department of Transportation, State Route History, accessed July 2007
  7. ^ "Designation of State Roads", Chapter 71, Session Laws of Utah, 1925: "(j) From Tremonton in a westerly direction via Blue Springs, Snowville, Curlew, Pilot Spring and Lucin to the Utah-Nevada State line."
  8. ^ "Designation of State Roads", Chapter 21, Session Laws of Utah, 1927: "42. From Tremonton northwesterly via Snowville to the Utah-Idaho State line near Strevell, Idaho."
  9. ^ Bureau of Public Roads, United States System of Highways, November 11, 1926
  10. ^ "Designation of State Roads", Chapter 55, Session Laws of Utah, 1931: "(70) From a point between Snowville and Strevell, thence southwesterly along a route to be determined by the Utah State road commission to the Utah-Nevada State line."
  11. ^ "Designation of State Roads", Chapter 55, Session Laws of Utah, 1931: "(69) From Brigham City northerly via Honeyville, Deweyville, Collinston, Beaver Dam Summit, and easterly to Logan." "(102) From Deweyville westerly to Tremonton."
  12. ^ Soda Springs Sun, Road Routing Of U.S. 89 Settled, December 15, 1938
  13. ^ Rand McNally Auto Road Atlas, 1953
  14. ^ Utah State Road Commission (Rand McNally), Utah Official Highway Map, 1956
  15. ^ "Designation of Secondary State Roads", Chapter 30, Session Laws of Utah, 1933: "(154) From Garland northeasterly to Collinston."
  16. ^ "State Roads and Routes", Chapter 61, Session Laws of Utah, 1945: "Route 85. From Riverside on route 41 east to route 154."
  17. ^ Utah Department of Transportation, Highway Resolutions: Route 85PDF (3.24 MB), updated November 2007, accessed May 2008
  18. ^ Utah Department of Transportation, Highway Resolutions: Route 84PDF (6.85 MB), updated November 2007, accessed May 2008
  19. ^ Utah Department of Transportation, Highway Resolutions: Route 129PDF (2.19 MB), updated November 2007, accessed May 2008
  20. ^ Utah Department of Transportation, Highway Resolutions: Route 102PDF (3.32 MB), updated November 2007, accessed May 2008
  21. ^ a b Utah Department of Transportation, Highway Resolutions: Route 3PDF (10.5 MB), updated September 2007, accessed May 2008
  22. ^ Utah Department of Transportation, Highway Resolutions: Route 51PDF (3.72 MB), updated October 2007, accessed May 2008
  23. ^ Rand McNally Auto Road Atlas, 1926
  24. ^ "Designation of State Roads", Chapter 21, Session Laws of Utah, 1927: "3. From the Utah-Idaho line near Fish Haven, Idaho, thence southerly along the west shore of Bear Lake through Garden City and Laketown, to Sage Creek Junction, Randolph and Woodruff to the Utah-Wyoming State line at a point about ten (10) miles in a southeasterly direction from Woodruff; also from Sage Creek Junction easterly to the Wyoming State line."
  25. ^ "Designation of State Roads", Chapter 55, Session Laws of Utah, 1931: "(51) From Sage Creek junction on route 3 easterly to the Utah-Wyoming State line."
  26. ^ a b Utah Department of Transportation, Highway Resolutions: Route 30PDF (5.31 MB), updated October 2007, accessed May 2008
  27. ^ Benchmark Maps (2002). Utah Road and Recreation Atlas (Map). 1:170000. p. 34–38. ISBN 0-929591-74-7. http://www.benchmark.com. 

External links