Utah State Route 196

Infobox road
state=UT
type=SR
route=196
section=125
maint=UDOT


length_mi=36.922
length_round=2
length_ref=cite web | title=State Route 196 Highway reference | publisher=Utah Department of Transportation | url=http://www.dot.utah.gov/main/uconowner.gf?n=7220001891928979 ]
established=1998
direction_a=South
terminus_a=jct|state=UT|SR|199 in Dugway
direction_b=North
terminus_b=jct|state=UT|I|80 in Rowley Junction
previous_type=SR
previous_route=193
next_type=SR
next_route=197 State Route 196 is a north-south state highway located entirely in Tooele County, Utah that begins at SR-199 and ends at I-80. It passes through Skull Valley, and was added to the state highway system in 1998 to prevent the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians from using their reservation to store nuclear waste.

Route description

SR-196 begins at the junction with SR-199 near the control gate at Dugway Proving Grounds. The route travels north through the Skull Valley Indian Reservation and past the ghost town of Iosepa. The route ends at the junction with I-80 at the Rowley Junction interchange.

History

Skull Valley Road, then an unimproved dirt trail, was part of the Lincoln Highway from its creation in 1913 until about 1920, when an improved gravel road over Johnson Pass (present SR-199) was built with the help of a donation from Carl G. Fisher. [Kevin J. Patrick and Robert E. Wilson, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, [http://old.www.iup.edu/geography/Faculty/LHPDF/ResourceGuide/RG_TOC.shtm Lincoln Highway Resource Guide] , August 2002 (submitted to the National Park Service for the National Register of Historic Places): PDFlink| [http://old.www.iup.edu/geography/Faculty/LHPDF/ResourceGuide/CH15%20Lincoln%20Highway%20in%20Utah.pdf Chapter 15: Lincoln Highway in Utah] |41.3 KB, accessed June 2008] By the 1950s, Tooele County had constructed a paved county road through the valley.Utah State Road Commission (Rand McNally), Utah Official Highway Map, 1956] In the early 1990s, the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians began planning a nuclear waste storage facility in Skull Valley. [Jim Woolf, Salt Lake Tribune, San Juan, Goshutes Consider Building Giant Radioactive-Waste Complex, July 13, 1992, p. B1] At the urging of Governor Mike Leavitt, the Utah Transportation Commission added the road to the state highway system in January 1998 as SR-196, and in February the state legislature concurred and added the new route to the highway code. [Jim Woolf, Salt Lake Tribune, Panel OKs Skull Valley Road-Transfer Bill, February 20, 1998, p. B1] Utah Department of Transportation, [http://www.udot.utah.gov/main/f?p=100:pg:5285268476414239680:::1:T,V:1348, Highway Resolutions] : PDFlink|1= [http://www.udot.utah.gov/main/uconowner.gf?n=1315171321329150056 Route 196] |2=604 KB, updated November 2007, accessed May 2008] Signs were posted in March prohibiting transport of high-level nuclear waste on the new state highway except by permit. [Hilary Groutage, Salt Lake Tribune, A Sign of the Times: No N-Waste Here, March 22, 1998, p. C1] The next year, the commission designated two "statewide public safety interest highways" - State Routes 900 and 901 - each consisting of several low-quality Bureau of Land Management and county-maintained roadways branching off I-80 and SR-196, respectively. Unlike a typical state highway, the roads were not to be improved to higher standards; the purpose of the designation was to prevent construction of a waste-carrying rail line branching off the Union Pacific Railroad's Shafter Subdivision (ex-Western Pacific Railroad), which would cross these roads. [Jim Woolf, Salt Lake Tribune, State Absorbs 2 County Roads to Block Nuclear Waste Shipments; Tactic would halt shipments of radioactive matter on rail spur that crosses highways, February 13, 1999, p. D1] Utah Department of Transportation, [http://www.udot.utah.gov/main/f?p=100:pg:5285268476414239680:::1:T,V:1348, Highway Resolutions] : PDFlink|1= [http://www.udot.utah.gov/main/uconowner.gf?n=200609121744073 Route 900] |2=841 KB, updated December 2007, accessed May 2008] Utah Department of Transportation, [http://www.udot.utah.gov/main/f?p=100:pg:5285268476414239680:::1:T,V:1348, Highway Resolutions] : PDFlink|1= [http://www.udot.utah.gov/main/uconowner.gf?n=200609121743563 Route 901] |2=842 KB, updated December 2007, accessed May 2008]

Major intersections

{|class=wikitable!County!Locationcite web
publisher=Utah Department of Transportation
title=State Highway Map
url=http://www.udot.utah.gov/main/f?p=100:pg:2117854713443240831::::V,T:,346
accessdate=28 May
accessmonth=
accessyear=2008]

!Mile!Junction!Notes
-Jctint
state=UT
county=Tooele
cspan=3
location=Dugway Proving Ground
lspan=1
type=
mile=0.000
road=jct|state=UT|SR|199|to2=yes|
notes=Southern terminusJctint
state=UT
location=Rowley Junction
lspan=2
mile=36.828
road=jct|state=UT|I|80|to2=yes|city1=Wendover, Salt Lake City
notes=jctint
location=
mile=36.922
road="End Maintenance" sign
notes=Northern terminus

References