FTA grants more funds for UTA LRT
Written by Douglas John BowenFederal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff on Monday personally announced a grant of $116 million to Utah Transit Authority to extend UTA’s TRAX light rail transit line from Sandy to Draper, Utah.
Federal funding is covering about 60% of the $194 million, 3.8-mile extension of the line, which will add three station stops to the system. Construction of the extension already is ongoing, and about 50% complete, according to E. Gregory Thorpe, Utah Transit Authority’s manager of light rail engineering and construction. Thorpe said UTA expects construction, including installation of overhead wire, to be completed by next May.
Rogoff said the LRT extension will make “the difference between pulling your hair out in congestion on the Interstate, versus being able to get a little extra work done on the way home and being able to put that work away and enjoy your kids when you get home.”
The Draper extension is one of five UTA projects slated for completion by 2015, which UTA says are all completed or ahead of schedule. A second TRAX extension currently is under construction to Salt Lake City International Airport.
