UT FTBL 7133(1) Canyon Rims Road

The Canyon Rims SRMA road network is comprised of two major Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roads totaling 37.7 miles located on top of a large plateau encompassing 100,273 acres south of Moab. The first 22 mile section of road from US Highway 191 to the Needles Overlook (Hatch Point Road) is an asphalt paved surface. The second road from Hatch Point Road to the Anticline Overlook (Anticline Road) is 15.7 miles and has an aggregate surface. Historical use for this area has reached or exceeded 20,000 vehicles annually and this number is expected to triple over the next 10‐15 years. The roads provide access to two developed fee campgrounds, four scenic overlooks, and several trailheads, and can be functionally classified as Rural Recreational and Scenic Roads. The majority of visitors come to observe the Colorado River’s canyon from the overlooks at the edge of the plateau.

The purpose of the project is to enhance public access and safety for visitors to the Canyon Rims SRMA by rehabilitating, restoring, and resurfacing the roadway network in the management area. The need to repair and improve the existing roadway network is to reduce annual maintenance costs and issues, re-establish proper drainage, and improve safety. Needles Overlook Road has been identified as a priority because of its current use as the initial access route into the SRMA off US 191 and generally poor road conditions. The road provides direct access to the Needles Overlook recreation facility and to Anticline Overlook Road.

This project consists of Schedule A and two Options (X and Y).

Schedule A rehabilitates 9.28 Miles of Needles Overlook Road, beginning from the end of the road at the existing Needles Overlook parking area, continuing east 6.98 miles to the intersection with Anticline Overlook Road, and then extending an additional 2.3 Miles to the East. The work elements include pavement patching and pavement chip sealing from the Needles Overlook to the Anticline intersection and full depth reclamation and pavement overlay from the Anticline intersection to the end of the Schedule. The work also includes locations of roadway embankment slope flattening, ditch and shoulder reconditioning, minor drainage improvements, selective clearing to reduce vegetation adjacent to the roadway, signing, striping, and delineator replacement, new pavement markings, and revegetation at locations of fill slope flattening. The Needles Overlook parking areas will also receive new surface treatment and pavement markings.

Option X begins where Schedule A ends and continues an additional 1.52 miles east along Needles Overlook Road. The work elements include full depth reclamation and pavement overlay, roadway fill slope flattening, shoulder reconditioning, signing, striping, and delineator replacement, and revegetation at locations of fill slope flattening.

Option Y constructs a full turn lane build-out at the T intersection of US 191 and Needles Overlook Road and provides a dedicated left-turn, acceleration, and deceleration lanes on US 191 for 0.82 miles to address safety concerns associated with entering and exiting the Needles Overlook Road. The work includes building embankment, minor drainage improvements, new asphalt pavement and chip seal, chip sealing the existing pavement of US 191, signing, striping and delineator replacement, and cattle guardrail and fence replacement. US 191 is functionally classified as a rural principal arterial and is maintained by Utah Department of Transportation based out of La Sal, Utah.