By Debra Workman
The Legacy Highway trial began Wed., March 20, but for the Utah Department of Transportation it could not have started soon enough.
UDOT has been anticipating a decision since Nov. 16, when a court injunction halted the project. The case is being heard in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
'The delay is costing the state a great deal of money,' said Amanda Covington, UDOT media adviser.
UDOT started construction on a primary route, which will pass through wetlands near the Great Salt Lake.
But two weeks after the construction began, costs rose to $451 million, said Josh Ewing, Mayor Rocky Anderson''s press secretary.
'We feel it jumped because they were hiding costs to make that the sweet route, the route to go on,' he said.
Legacy was designed to relieve traffic congestion in Salt Lake City, but new highways congest roads because more people are encouraged to drive, he said.
The Sierra Club also opposes the chosen route because Legacy Highway would restrict mountain run-off from flowing through the wetlands, said Mark Clemens, Sierra Club chapter coordinator.
'We want to diminish urban sprawl,' he said. 'We want fewer single family homes on quarter-acre lots,' he said.