One Year In on the 3,100-Mile Trail Vision: What's Moving, What's Stalled

Written By CAL TEBBS

Murdock Canal Trail in Utah Valley (Adobe Stock)

The Utah Trail Network has gone from lines on a map to dirt in the ground — but not everywhere, and not at the same speed

Back in March we walked readers through the Utah Trail Network — the state's plan for 3,100 miles of paved, connected trails linking 208 towns and cities, 33 colleges and universities, 74 major transit stations, six national parks and monuments, and 25 state parks. When it's built out, 95% of Utahns will live within a mile of the network. Gov. Spencer Cox has called it an interstate system for people who'd rather walk, bike or roll.

We ended that piece with a caveat: the network was still lines on a map.

That's no longer entirely true. Six months later there's asphalt going down, a second round of funding on the books, and — just as instructive — a marquee Utah County extension sitting on hold with no schedule attached. Here's where things actually stand along the Wasatch Front.

What's Moving

The first shovel finally went in the ground. In late April, construction began on the first Utah Trail Network project: a 0.7-mile connection along SR-128 in Moab that closes a long-standing gap in the Colorado River Trail, where people had been forced onto a narrow stretch of highway with almost no shoulder. It's not our county, but it matters — it's the moment the program stopped being a planning exercise. UDOT described it as the first of more than 20 projects currently in development statewide.

The 3900 South Shared Path is nearly out of design. This is the one Wasatch Front readers should be watching most closely. The project — a collaboration between UDOT, Millcreek and South Salt Lake — will build a shared-use trail along 3900 South from the Jordan River Trail east to West Temple, letting people cross the middle of the Salt Lake Valley without threading I-15 interchanges. UDOT lists construction as anticipated in 2026 and 2027. Trails Division Director Stephanie Tomlin called it a keystone project when the funding was announced, and the reason is connection math: tie into the Jordan River Parkway and you've got continuous path access running from Davis County down into Utah County.

A second, much bigger funding round landed in June. At the June 2026 Utah Transportation Commission meeting, the UDOT Trails Division received approval to fund 25 new projects — 12 feasibility studies and 13 projects for design and construction. That brings the program to 46 total funded projects, more than double where it stood a year ago. UDOT publishes an interactive dashboard of every funded project, which is the fastest way to see whether something is queued up in your city.

The full master plan is due this year. The map we covered in March was only the first component. The Trails Division intends to complete the full Utah Trail Network Master Plan in late 2026, including design standards, delivery strategy and recommendations for how "Trail Towns" can build local identity around the routes running through them.

What's Stalled

The Provo Canyon extension is on hold. The March article mentioned planned extensions of the Provo River Parkway up the canyon. Here's the update: the three-mile Vivian Park–to–Deer Creek Dam segment, a partnership between the Mountainland Association of Governments and UDOT, has finished design, right-of-way acquisition and its state environmental study — and is now on hold, with UDOT listing the construction schedule as unknown. A finished design sitting on a shelf is the clearest illustration yet that funding and readiness are two different problems.

Bingham Creek Trail moved to 2027. The 6.3-mile trail connecting the Jordan River Parkway to Bingham Creek Regional Park in Daybreak drew $14 million in the first round back in 2024, with talk of construction as early as 2025. The project team is currently gathering data, developing alternatives and working through environmental review; construction is now expected to begin in 2027. Not stalled, exactly — but a useful calibration for how long "funded" takes to become "paved."

The hardest gaps are still studies, not projects. Parley's Canyon, the connections through Utah Valley, the Utah Lake Shore Trail — these fall into UDOT's gap closure and vision corridor categories, meaning they need feasibility work before anyone can talk about a construction date. UDOT is blunt that the master plan map shows aspirational routes and that all of it is subject to change as planning progresses.

The Arithmetic Nobody Puts on the Map

The Active Transportation Investment Fund runs on $45 million a year, and that figure covers not just construction but the Trails Division's own operating costs and planning contracts. The master plan calls for 2,600 miles of new paved trail. Even at a favorable per-mile cost, that's a multi-decade build — which is exactly how UDOT has framed it, and why the map is scheduled to be revisited roughly every four years rather than treated as a construction calendar.

None of that is a knock on the program. It's the difference between a highway system announcement and a highway system. The Wasatch Front got its Jordan River Parkway, Murdock Canal Trail and Provo River Parkway the same way — one funded segment at a time, over years.

What to Watch Next

  • Late 2026: Full Master Plan release, including Trail Town guidance.

  • 2026–27 construction season: The 3900 South Shared Path, if design wraps on schedule.

  • Next STIP cycle, spring 2027: The third round of project funding, where Utah and Salt Lake county projects will compete against the rest of the state.

  • Any movement on Provo Canyon. The design is done. All it needs is a funding decision.

The vision hasn't changed since March. What's changed is that it now has a track record — modest, uneven and real.

Sources

Mountain & Main Magazine utilizes AI tools for research assistance and draft development.

CAL TEBBS
Next

From Parkway to Ghost Falls: Rucking Utah's Fall Trails