Skip to main content

Utah State Route 20

By

Utah State Route 20 is a 20.492 mile State Highway which connects Interstate 15 in Iron County east to US Route 89 in Garfield County.  Utah State Route 20 ascends a gap between the Markagunt Plateau and Tushar Mountains which is aligned partially over the historic route of the Old Spanish Trail.  Utah State Route 20 is popular as a freight corridor and as a reliable means for traffic to approach Bryce Canyon National Park.   


Part 1; the history of Utah State Route 20

As noted in the intro the corridor of Utah State Route 20 ("UT 20") is closely aligned with the Old Spanish Trail.  The Old Spanish Trail was a corridor established by Spanish explorers during the Las Californias period of the 18th Century between Santa Fe and Los Angeles.  The Old Spanish Trail progressing towards the American Period became well established and was largely incorporated into emigrant roads.  The Spanish Trail passed through the gap in the Markagunt Plateau and Tushar Mountains west from modern US Route 89 via what is now; UT 20, Upper Bear Valley Road and Little Creek Canyon Road to UT 271 (former US Route 91) near Paragonah.  This alignment is cited as part of the official Old Spanish Trail touring route by the National Park Service.  

The route of the Old Spanish Trail through the gap between the Markagunt Plateau and Tushar Mountains was adopted as a Utah State Highway in 1917.  This State Highway was assigned as UT 20 in 1927 which can be seen aligned between US Route 89 west to US Route 91 in Paragonah on the 1931 Clason's Road Map of Utah.  

The first UT 90 was commissioned by the State of Utah in 1935 as a new highway connecting from UT 20 in Little Bear Valley northwest to US Route 91.  The original UT 90 appears for the first time on the 1939 Rand McNally Map of Nevada-Utah.  

The original UT 90 was decommissioned in 1947 as it was consolidated into a realigned UT 20.  Following the realignment of UT 20 what had been the original alignment on Upper Bear Valley Road and Little Creek Canyon Road was relinquished from the State Highway System.  The realignment of UT 20 in 1947 forms the basis for the modern highway and can be seen on the 1950 Shell Highway Map of Utah. 


Part 2; a drive on Utah State Route 20

UT 20 eastbound begins in Iron County from Interstate 15 Exit 95.  





UT 20 eastbound is signed as 20 miles from US Route 89 departing Interstate 15.  Traffic is further advised that Bryce Canyon is 52 miles eastward.  



UT 20 eastbound is initially signed with a 65 MPH speed limit.  UT 20 eastbound has numerous climbing lanes ascending to a unnamed pass at 7,920 feet above sea level.












UT 20 eastbound drops to a 35 MPH speed limit as it descends a 8% grade over the course of 3 miles to Little Bear Valley.  









UT 20 eastbound intersects Upper Bear Valley Road (the Old Spanish Trail and Old UT 20) in Little Bear Valley and resumes a 65 MPH speed limit.   UT 20 east of Upper Bear Valley Road is signed as part of the Old Spanish Trail.  


UT 20 eastbound follows Bear Creek through a series of canyons to the Garfield County Line.  Shortly after entering Garfield County UT 20 eastbound terminates at US Route 89.  







Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

By
  There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population.  The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t
Post a Comment
Read more

Hernando de Soto Bridge (Memphis, TN)

By
The newest of the bridges that span the lower Mississippi River at Memphis, the Hernando de Soto Bridge was completed in 1973 and carries Interstate 40 between downtown Memphis and West Memphis, AR. The bridge’s signature M-shaped superstructure makes it an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and one of the most visually unique bridges on the Mississippi River. As early as 1953, Memphis city planners recommended the construction of a second highway bridge across the Mississippi River to connect the city with West Memphis, AR. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge had been completed only four years earlier a couple miles downriver from downtown, however it was expected that long-term growth in the metro area would warrant the construction of an additional bridge, the fourth crossing of the Mississippi River to be built at Memphis, in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the previous three Mississippi River bridges to be built the city, the location chosen for this bridge was about two
1 comment
Read more

Memphis & Arkansas Bridge (Memphis, TN)

By
  Like the expansion of the railroads the previous century, the modernization of the country’s highway infrastructure in the early and mid 20th Century required the construction of new landmark bridges along the lower Mississippi River (and nation-wide for that matter) that would facilitate the expected growth in overall traffic demand in ensuing decades. While this new movement had been anticipated to some extent in the Memphis area with the design of the Harahan Bridge, neither it nor its neighbor the older Frisco Bridge were capable of accommodating the sharp rise in the popularity and demand of the automobile as a mode of cross-river transportation during the Great Depression. As was the case 30 years prior, the solution in the 1940s was to construct a new bridge in the same general location as its predecessors, only this time the bridge would be the first built exclusively for vehicle traffic. This bridge, the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge, was completed in 1949 and was the third
Post a Comment
Read more