   Standard state highway markers in Utah | |
| Highway names | |
|---|---|
| Interstates | Interstate nn (I-nn) |
| US Highways | US Highway nn (US-nn) |
| State | State Route nn (SR-nn) |
| System links | |
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The U.S. state of Utah, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) operates a system of state routes that serve all portions of the state. In official documents the state of Utah uses the term "state routes" for numbered, state maintained highways, since the legal definition of a "highway" includes any public road.[1] UDOT signs state routes with a beehive symbol after the state's nickname of the beehive state. There are 3,658.04 miles (5,887.04 km)[Note 1] of state routes in Utah.
The numbers and routes of all Utah highways are assigned by the state legislature, currently documented in Utah Code Title 72, Chapter 4. The code also defines the Utah maintained portions of Interstate and U.S. Highways. With the exception of state route numbers assigned to match U.S. Highways and Interstate Highways, Utah state route numbers are not designated per any consistent pattern, though there are a few regional clusters of sequentially numbered highways.
There have been multiple changes to the numbering of state routes. Since 1969, the block of numbers between 281 and 320 is reserved for routes serving state institutions and state parks. With a few exceptions, these routes do not have their numbers publicly posted. Since 1977, the legislative designations do not have any concurrencies. For the situations where two numbered roads share the same physical roadbed, one of the designations will have a discontinuity in the legislative designation. For example, Interstate 84 is defined as a highway with two separate segments in Utah code, the part where I-84 is signed concurrent with Interstate 15 is only legally designated I-15.
Two Utah state Routes are special cases. State Route 900 and 901 are actually federal and county-maintained dirt roads that were assigned state numbers as to give the state power to block the transportation of nuclear waste to a proposed dump on Goshute tribal lands.[2]
The longest contiguous highway signed as a Utah State Route is State Route 24 at 160.243 miles (257.886 km), but State Route 30 is longer at 223 miles (359 km) when unsigned concurrencies are included. The longest highway of any type in Utah is U.S. Route 89 at 502.577 miles (808.819 km). The shortest state route is State Route 231, a 0.085 miles (0.137 km) connector route in Fairview, though this route is unsigned. The shortest signed route is State Route 103 at 0.225 miles (0.362 km) long, connecting Hill Air Force Base to I-15 and SR-126.
- ^ "72-1-102 Definitions". le.utah.gov. Utah State Legislature. 2001. Retrieved 19 Feb 2014.
"Highway" means any public road, street, alley, lane, court, place, viaduct, tunnel, culvert, bridge, or structure laid out or erected for public use, or dedicated or abandoned to the public, or made public in an action for the partition of real property, including the entire area within the right-of-way.
- ^ Woolf, Jim (February 13, 1999). "State Absorbs 2 County Roads to Block Nuclear Waste Shipments; Tactic would halt shipments of radioactive matter on rail spur that crosses highways". Salt Lake Tribune. p. D1. Retrieved November 9, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
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