What’s Next For The Northern Corridor Project In St. George?

More than four years ago, the Northern Corridor, which would link the East Side of Washington County to the West side without burdening St. George Boulevard, was approved and builders and city planners began to move forward with the plan.

But the Biden administration put the corridor on hold, offering several extreme alternatives, like a freeway belt route through St. George.

At the state of the county address last week, Washington County Commissioner Adam Snow said he’s confident the new administration will go back to the original ruling:  

“We are continuing to fight and we’re pushing every lever that we have on our federal partners, whether it’s judicial, administrative or legislative — we will get this road,” Snow said.

The Northern Corridor was first proposed as a way to lighten traffic in the St. George area by providing a new east-west route between I-15 and SR-18. 

Now the issue is fairly complicated.

On one side, the county, St. George City and Washington City acted on the belief that the Northern Corridor, which would run from Exit 13 of Interstate 15 across the desert reserve and end up connecting up with the Snow Canyon Parkway AKA "Turtle Road."

The proposal involves swapping nearly 7,000 acres in another part of the county for the roughly 150 acres needed for the road.

While that seems more than fair, environmental groups still reject the idea, saying any proposal that involves putting a road through the Red Cliffs Nature Reserve is unacceptable.

The Bureau of Land Management under Joe Biden proposed as an alternative turning Red Hills Parkway into a potential freeway belt route.

That proposal is deemed unacceptable by Snow and other civic leaders. The belt route would most likely destroy the Sugar Loaf in St. George and cost millions of extra dollars in imminent domain money as many businesses and homeowners would be affected.

The controversy is far from over, as evidenced by Snow's comments and the thoughts of other local leaders like St. George Mayor Michele Randall.

The future of the project may well depend on future political leadership (especially at the top), lawsuits and a potential change to the BLM's stance.

Get some popcorn, this one is far from over.

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