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FARMINGTON, Utah (AP) -- Legacy Parkway, a 14-mile highway connecting Salt Lake City and its northern suburbs, is 80 percent built.
Some people can't wait. They're taking unauthorized test rides on the pavement.
State road builders say Legacy will open in September, siphoning a third of the rush-hour traffic from Interstate 15 in Davis County.
The $685 million parkway was revived by Gov. Jon Huntsman in 2005 after successful legal challenges by environmental groups.
The settlement has firm rules: The speed limit will be 55 mph, heavy trucks will be prohibited and the road surface will minimize noise. Trails for pedestrians, bicycles and horses will flank the highway. "We don't have many parkways in the West," said Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights. "They're a common sight in the East and I really think they blend beautifully with the natural landscape."
A 125-acre nature preserve is being created to replace the wetlands and wildfowl habitat destroyed during construction.
"It urges you to connect instead of just whizzing by at 65 or 70 miles per hour," said Lynn de Freitas, director of Friends of the Great Salt Lake.
"It's supposed to be so visually exciting that you want to walk the trailway, you want to push your (stroller) with your twins and read the signs. You feel a part of what's there in everybody's backyard," she said.
De Freitas is helping the Utah Department of Transportation design signs and kiosks to help people learn things about the lake.
Bell named parkways in Virginia as places where tourists sometimes drive just to enjoy the sights. "It really shows off both the mountains to the east and the wetlands and the lake to the west," he said of the Utah project.
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
