I-70's remarkable westward run across the North American continent comes to a rather unremarkable end here in central Utah. After passing through Denver, the Rocky Mountains, tunnels, high passes, canyons and some of the most stunning scenery anywhere, the 'END I-70' sign appears in a kindof 'middle of nowhere' place here at I-15. In fact, there appear to be no services (or anything else) of any kind here. I-70 carries an impressive amount of midwestern USA to and from southern California traffic through here, and it merges with similarly bound I-15 traffic from the Salt Lake City area. Going eastward from here, just off the map, I-70 begins a climb of about 350 m in approximately 8 km to cross the ridge between here and Richfield, UT. A little ways past Richfield, I-70 settles down to a run of well over 160 km without any kind of services--no food, no fuel, no sundries, only a series of primative rest areas, as there is no electricity between Salina and Green River.
As to this unremarkable ending to I-70, an obvious question comes to mind: "why not extend I-70 westward to go somewhere???"
First, where would it go?
Projecting westward from the end of I-70, the only major cities
appear to be Fresno, San Jose and San Francisco, CA. (Fresno COULD
use a better connection to points east.)
Second, How would it get there?
Westward from here, it could roughly follow the U-21 corridor to
about Ely, NV and then the US 6 corridor across Nevada. In
California, there are fairly direct corridors available from a
possible north 'beltline' bypass of Fresno to San Jose, and then US
101 to San Franciso.
There are *TWO* problems, though...
First, U-21 and US 6 together cross some of the most 'God forsaken'
territory anywhere on this planet. Except for Ely, NV (hardly a major
metropolis), there is *nobody* anywhere between Cove Fort, UT and
Bishop, CA. (and it is a looooooong way between the two), and;
Second, the Sierra Nevadas. In addition to engineering a RUGGED climb
and a likely 20 km Alpine style 'long' tunnel at the summit, it would
take a *highly controversial* act of Congress to allow for an
interstate highway corridor to be developed through the 'John Muir
Wilderness' (located between Kings Canyon and Yosemite National
Parks). In fact, that range is *solid* National Parks and/or
'Wilderness' areas for a long distance both north and south from this
potential corridor.
A *HIGHLY UNLIKELY* occurrence within my lifetime.
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This page © Michael G. Koerner |
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