Castle Country Radio was able to catch up with Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) Spokesperson, Kevin Kitchen to talk about the new Port of Entry construction talking place just north of Price.
“So construction, as you noticed, has started, really starting on one side of the road there, and taking care of some clearing and grubbing, some basic excavation that’s necessary. Then they start digging down to put in some water and sewer lines etc. we’ve got to have facilities there for the employees and you know for the truckers,” said Kitchen. Nielson Construction is the company working on the development right now and will work in phases throughout the project.
Why is a Port of Entry necessary?
“Well a Port of Entry is important for a couple of reasons. I think one of things we look at from asset management or pavement standpoint is how do we maintain our system, our roads and so forth. One of the reasons that ports are important is so that we get the proper weight loads riding on our system so we make sure that we don’t damage the system that we have, so that is one reason we have ports,” explained Kitchen. Another important reason for the port is to make sure drivers/truckers are in compliance with regulations of the types of things they are hauling and also monitor the condition of their vehicles.
The location of the new Port of Entry is about 3 miles north of Price with construction work taking place on both sides of the road which will house a port office on each side. “We will have stops on both sides of the road and this was part of the issue, is a lot of the times with the previous port any westbound traffic had to cross over to the eastbound side in order to be inspected. So this will allow us to have free movement in both directions to be able to inspect in both directions and quite frankly, we weren’t able to inspect as much as we could,” said Kitchen. The new port will allow for traffic to flow better and will be a lot safer for other drivers on the road compared to port’s current location at the mouth of the canyon.