It’s official! The newly re-done Kanab Creek Drive is now drivable

Well, part of it is anyway. As Kanab Creek Drive undergoes significant changes to prepare it for being the primary vein to the new elementary school in the Kanab Ranchos, the road is slowly developing bit by bit.

Prepare to see some slowdowns as these three-eyed watchmen govern the traffic over the Kanab Creek dip. Photo by Ty Gant.

This week, the first finished paved section is now open for use - the section abutting HWY 89A. The intersection was designed to more smoothly connect the two roads that cross 89A, and to ultimately permit a traffic signal to govern the intersection’s traffic. Now the intersection lines up more smoothly with all four sides of the stop, and this new section of Kanab Creek Drive is ready for use. According to one of the city’s engineers, the Kanab Creek Drive project meets standards of use, and the project is progressing well within expected time frames - projections show that the road itself will likely be finished within the month, and the auxiliary projects like the water drainage ditches, road shoulders and adjoining sections between the road and private properties will hopefully be finished by the end of the year.

The freshly refurbished Kanab Creek Drive segment finally lines up with the Highway 89A intersection. Photo by Ty Gant.

This part of the road was of major concern to the citizens who live on Kanab Creek Drive, as well as many who plan on sending their children to the new elementary school in the coming year. Concerns included the risk of injury due to the depth of the ditches on the sides of the road, the overt expense of digging such ditches for water drainage whose scale hasn’t been seen in Kanab for a long time, as well as for the lack of safe biking lanes along the road. Considering the many children who will be traversing the road on the way to school, as well as for the local kids who live in properties directly adjacent to the road, many of the locals believe that a biking lane is necessary for the childrens’ safety. Statements made by the city council, as well as by city engineers, did not rule out the possibility; one city engineer said “We’d love to head out there and put curb and gutter. But we, like everybody else, are limited by the budget.” Similar sentiments from the city council posed that in order to get the traffic light prepared - another point that the citizens of the city have asked for many times - the road needs to be up to code for a UDOT assessment. UDOT does not perform these assessments on command; rather, there is a period of time required between assessments to the order of months and years.

The city council posed the point that it’s absolutely in their best interest that this assessment goes right the first time, so that traffic light doesn’t have to wait the entire period between UDOT assessments to be installed - thus the road is being built to code, to appropriate standards, and the possibility of expanding it further remains a possibility going forward.

In the meantime, the first drivable section of the new Kanab Creek Drive is now in place, but the rest of the road still needs work. Citizens can expect traffic slowdowns and heavy construction as the project continues, especially over the dip that bridges the Kanab Creek itself. As of this printing, the road is down to one lane, with an automated traffic signal governing the two sides of the creek - plan on a few minutes’ wait if you’re looking to cross. As mentioned above, the city’s estimate for the east side of the project’s completion was a hopeful “by the end of year.”