Logan mayor and public works director talk roads

It seems the two big issues associated with growth in Cache Valley have to do with housing and roads.  On the monthly Speak to the Mayor hour during KVNU’s For the People program on Wednesday, along with Logan Mayor Holly Daines, Public Works Director Paul Lindhardt was on the program.

Daines said Logan City recently received a matching grant from the Council of Governments, which is a group of mayors that appropriate money that comes through the local Metropolitan Planning Organization for major transportation projects. She said they’ll be moving ahead with work on the intersection of 1400 North and 600 West next summer. Lindhardt said the traffic back-up is really bad right now, especially during rush hour.

“It’s one of the big projects we’re excited for. It’ll begin, our goal is, early next spring to have it done next summer in 2019. It will be a complete intersection rebuild at 1400 North and 600 West, including a new traffic signal and railroad crossing.

“And then to go west to tie it in to the curb and gutter farther west near the Fast Forward Charter High School and south to the new Cache High School on 600 West,” he said.

They said whenever the railroad is involved it adds a greater cost to the project and a more expanded planning schedule, according to Lindhardt.

“When we know we’re going to be interacting with the railroad on a project, we know to plan at least anywhere in the one to three years in advance, just for permitting and to get through that approval process, their review process. They work with us but it’s typically not on a fast time scale.”

Lindhardt said the entire project is in the $4.7 million range, as there is some property acquisition and construction involved.

On another topic, a question came from a listener last week had to do with the relationship between Logan City and Utah State University. Was it good, or could it be better?  That question was put to Daines.

“And it is a great question because the university is such an important part of our community and we appreciate the fact that they’re here and…the richness and diversity it adds to our community. I think the relationships are good. In fact, just last week I was up meeting with President (Noelle) Cockett and with Neil Abercrombie, who is the governmental relations vice-president, to talk about some issues about downtown and how the university might be interested in being involved.

“Neil sits on our economic development committees so things that affect the university and the city, there’s some interaction there. I feel like we can always make strides in whatever we do. But we have a great relationship and I’ve appreciated visiting with President Cockett,” the mayor said.

She said there’s also something called The Community Bridge Initiative. If the city has need of some expertise that they have at the university, or if a professor has projects that they’d like students to be involved with in real-life situations, there is a process to help with various projects.

AUDIO: Speak to the Mayor 10-17-2018

 

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

1 Comment

  • Straton October 19, 2018 at 4:04 pm Reply

    Next project a roundabout on 100 E and 300 S. It needs it!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.