EXHIBITS

(In) The Road of Progress: The West Side and I-15: A National Interstate

A National Interstate

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This map shows the plans made by the Public Roads Administration in 1947. Notice how major cities are connected across the US.

Beyond Salt Lake City, the completion of the interstate system became a top priority across the United States after World War II. The National System of Interstate and Defense Highways Act was projected to increase economic prosperity by better connecting businesses to markets, providing an adequate defense system to access all parts of the country efficiently, and solving the traffic congestion that plagued the nation.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 into law, providing federal funding for the construction of the interstate and spurring the beginning of numerous roads projects across the United States. [1]

With a secure source of funding, it would only be a matter of time before Utah started construction on its portion of the interstate system.

Proposed Route

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Herbert M. Fehmel, a staff artist at the Utah Department of Highways, created this drawing and most of the other drawings envisioning the construction of I-15 as well as many other roads projects in Utah.

Notice the blocks caught between the lanes of the freeway and its off-ramps. That space was made less accessible to the people who lived there by freeway construction that cemented the divides between the west and east sides of the city. Also note how much space this road takes up, easily covering multiple blocks of residential space. Courtesy of the Utah State Archives.

Continued Protests and The Final Approval

The interstate system gave the final push for the north-south freeway to finally be built. The Road Commission, now with federal funding to back its aspirations, returned to planning a location for this section of freeway. Building between the blocks of Fourth and Fifth West and the replacement of existing roads on either Sixth West or Seventh West were both considered, but no option garnered resident approval. West side residents objected to the Sixth West route, and in January 1957, four state legislators as well as leaders in the Riverside Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints protested the commission’s plans to build the north-south freeway along the Seventh West route.[2] An alternative proposal suggesting that the freeway veer back and forth between Sixth and Seventh West was also considered, but that drew ire from the incumbent Governor George D. Clyde, who urged a more direct route.[3]

After extensive public hearings and continued protest through the rest of 1957 and into January of 1958, the commission decided to build the north-south expressway next to Seventh West, closely following the agreed-upon route from 1951.[4] With this final agreement, the freeway was set to be built.

Endnotes:

[1] Mark H. Rose and Raymond A. Mohl, Interstate: Highway Politics and Policy Since 1939 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2012), 92-94.

[2] Ezra C. Knowlton, History of Highway Development in Utah (Utah: Utah State Department of Highways, 1964), 602-603; “S.L. Hear Protests On 7th W. Freeway,” Deseret News, January 22, 1957.

[3] “Freeway Opposition Gains but Backers Remain Firm,” Salt Lake Tribune, January 25, 1957.

[4] Knowlton, 600-3.