U.S. Route 6 in Utah
U.S. Route 6 is an east-west United States Numbered Highway through the central part of the U.S. state of Utah. Although it is only about longer than US-50, it serves more populated areas and, in fact, follows what had been US-50's routing until it was moved to follow Interstate 70 in 1976. In 2009, the Utah State Legislature named part of the route the "Mike Dmitrich Highway", named after the Utah state senator, which generated controversy, as the state of Utah had previously joined with all the other states through which US-6 passes in naming all of US-6 the Grand Army of the Republic Highway.
Route description
US-6 forms an arch-shaped route with Spanish Fork at the apex. The western half of the arch is less traveled and almost entirely two-lane, passing through the Great Basin Desert, Sevier Lake, Delta, Eureka, and the Tintic Standard Reduction Mill. The eastern half of the arch is a busy transportation corridor, with significant parts having four or more lanes. This half passes over Soldier Summit and the historic railroad hub of Helper. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 519 fatal and serious injury crashes between Spanish Fork and Green River from 1996 to 2008, leading the stretch to be considered one of the deadliest roads in the U.S.Most of the route in Utah is part of the National Highway System, including the section referenced above as well as the concurrencies with I-15, I-70, and US-50. However, the segment between Delta and Santaquin is not included in the system.
Western Utah
US-6 enters Utah overlapped with US-50 in the Great Basin, a large desert that includes much of western Utah. As part of the Basin and Range Province, the terrain alternates between north-south oriented flat valleys and mountain ranges. US-6 and US-50 cross Snake Valley, the Confusion Range, and Tule Valley and crest the House Range via Skull Rock Pass. After crossing this mountainous terrain, the road arrives at Pahvant Valley there meeting and passing along the north shore of Sevier Lake, though the road is far enough away that water is usually only visible in the spring months. After Sevier Lake, the desert becomes farm lands, finally reaching the town of Hinckley just before they split in Delta. US-6 turns to the northeast at that city, paralleling the Union Pacific Railroad 's Lynndyl Subdivision to the west of the Canyon, Gilson, and East Tintic mountains—three ranges that form the eastern boundary of the Basin and Range Province.At Tintic Junction, the intersection with State Route 36 in the Tintic Valley, US-6 turns east and ascends the East Tintic Mountains. It passes through the mining city of Eureka near the top of the mountains, before descending into the Goshen Valley. Although it left behind the UP rail line at Tintic Junction, this part of US-6 parallels the former Tintic Branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, which has been partially abandoned. After passing through Goshen, the highway curves around the north side of Warm Springs Mountain and into Utah Valley, where it enters Santaquin. On the east side of that city, US-6 begins an overlap with I-15, while the old alignment—SR-198—continues straight through Payson and Salem. After about together in the Utah Valley, I-15 and US-6 separate in Spanish Fork, the latter turning southeast onto a short two-lane expressway.
Eastern Utah
SR-198 rejoins US-6 on the eastern outskirts of Spanish Fork, and soon thereafter US-89 joins at Moark Junction. The two routes—US-6 and US-89—begin an overlap here, alongside the UP Provo Subdivision, following the Spanish Fork. The remainder of US-6 to the Colorado state line parallels this rail line. The three routes follow the Spanish Fork to Thistle where US-6 and US-89 separate.US-6 begins climbing the Wasatch Plateau, cresting at Soldier Summit, where it finally leaves the Great Basin into the watershed of the Colorado River. It begins to descend by following tributaries of the Price River, first meeting the main stem near Colton. The Price River takes US-6 down through the Price Canyon, the west edge of the Book Cliffs, joining US-191 at Castle Gate. The land flattens and opens out at Helper, named for the helper locomotives needed to carry trains up to Soldier Summit, and US-6 continues southeasterly around Price on a two-lane freeway bypass, with the old alignment marked as both a business route and SR-55. Relatively flat land continues as US-6 parallels the Book Cliffs to the southwest and west, crossing the Price River at Woodside. West of Green River, US-6 joins I-70/US-50, which it overlaps for the remainder of its stay in Utah. Now south of the Book Cliffs, the four routes head east to Crescent Junction, where US-191 splits to the south. As it begins to approach toward the Colorado River, the highway curves northeasterly through the Grand Valley and into Colorado.
Image:Tie Fork rest stop Hwy 6 Utah.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Tie Fork Rest Area along US-6
Image:Tiefork2.JPG|thumb|250px|right|Tie Fork Rest Area along US-6
Image:TieFork3.JPG|thumb|250px|right|Tie Fork Rest Area along US-6
History
US-6 did not enter Utah until 1936, when it was extended west from Greeley, Colorado, to Long Beach, California. The eastern half in Utah, from Colorado to Spanish Fork, overlapped US-50, but, after a short segment on US-91 to Santaquin, it followed a route that was new to the U.S. Numbered Highway System into Nevada. This road was not yet built to good standards; while it was improved to Hinckley, the remainder across the desert was a graded earth road. It was not paved all the way until 1952, when a new alignment was completed from Hinckley into Nevada; within a few years, US-50 was moved from a long overlap with US-40 south to the new road, completely overlapping US-6 through Utah. US-50 was moved farther south in 1976, due to the completion of I-70 across the San Rafael Swell, separating the two routes between Delta and Green River.Utah Valley to Colorado
The road from SR-1 in Spanish Fork southeast via Price and Green River to the Colorado state line became a state highway in 1912, with the final section—Spanish Fork to Colton—being added in May. However, the original route was somewhat longer than present-day US-6, most notably between Price and Green River, where travelers went south from Price to Castle Dale via present SR-10 and then east to Green River via what are now county roads north of the San Rafael River. Other differences included going southeast from Green River to Valley City and northeast to Thompson Springs. New construction through Price Canyon between Kyune and Castle Gate was made easier by the presence of the D&RG Railroad in the canyon. Later that year, the Midland Trail Association was organized in Grand Junction, Colorado, to promote a transcontinental auto trail that would include this road.A 1913 law provided state aid to counties to construct the Midland Trail, with a general route defined. Initially it was to follow the present US-6 via Woodside between Price and Green River, but an amendment changed it to the existing state road through Buckhorn Flat. Travelers began using the Midland Trail through eastern Utah in early July 1913, and the road through Price Canyon, replacing a detour via Willow Creek Canyon and Emma Park, was completed by the men of Price later that month. A. L. Westgard of the National Highways Association praised the improvements to the road since the previous year, singling out the Price Canyon segment as "almost beyond comprehension". Although it was hoped that it would become part of the Lincoln Highway, the high mountain passes in Colorado convinced that association to designate a route farther north through Wyoming in September 1913. Midland Trail promoters were not discouraged; instead, they were determined to continue to improve to the route to make it better than the Lincoln Highway.
The shorter route via Woodside rather than Castle Dale was considered again in 1916, due to problems with maintaining the latter and a new bridge over the Price River at Woodside, and it was adopted as a state road in April. The piece northwest of Sunnyside Junction had already been designated as part of a state road to Sunnyside, the rest of which still exists as SR-123. A cutoff from Springville south to Moark Junction via Mapleton was also added that year.
A 1919 law redefined the state highway system to include only a short list of roads and any federal-aid projects. At the urging of Grand County, the route that corresponded to the Midland Trail was realigned to the longer but more scenic road along the Colorado River between Moab and Cisco, including the new Dewey Bridge. In response to a Carbon County request, the law also removed Price Canyon from the route, instead taking it along the older road through Willow Creek Canyon and Emma Park. Finally, the older route from Spanish Fork to Moark Junction was dropped in favor of the 1916 addition from Springville. Four years later, both counties had changed their minds, and the legislature changed the route back. The Moab–Cisco River Road was entirely dropped, but both the Price Canyon and Emma Park routes remained. Also that year, the Bureau of Public Roads approved Utah's seven percent federal-aid system in accordance with the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921, including the Springville–Colorado segment of the Midland Trail.
In the 1920s, the State Road Commission of Utah numbered the Springville–Colorado roadway as State Route 8. Several years later, in 1926, it also became part of US-50, which continued east to Annapolis, Maryland. The legislature officially adopted the SR-8 designation in 1927, dropping the Emma Park alternate and designating two other roads as SR-8: the Spanish Fork–Moark Junction road, which had been dropped in 1919, and a branch from Soldier Creek Junction northeast via Ninemile Canyon to Myton, which had been part of the 1919 system. The Myton spur was split off in 1931 as SR-53, and the Spanish Fork spur became SR-105 in 1945. In 1962, SR-8 was truncated to Green River, with the section east of Green River transferred to SR-4. In 1963, SR-8 extended north to north of Lehi, replacing part of SR-1, which was rerouted on current I-15 as that was constructed. In 1964, SR-105 became part of an extended SR-26. In 1969, the section east of Moark Junction became part of SR-27, leaving SR-8 as the legislative designation for US-89 from north of Lehi to Moark Junction. SR-8, SR-27, and SR-4 were cancelled in the 1977 Utah state route renumbering.
The state completely reconstructed US-50 east of Spanish Fork in 1930 and 1931, eliminating most curves and railroad grade crossings and shortening it by.