Regional Transportation Plan

As the designated metropolitan planning organization for the Salt Lake and Ogden-Layton Urban Areas, the Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC) leads the development of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). The RTP is the long-term blueprint for our regional transportation system with consideration for how our communities are growing and changing. The plan guides investments across Davis, Salt Lake, Weber, and southern Box Elder Counties and is updated every four years. With input from local governments, transportation agencies, community-based organizations, local stakeholders, and residents, the RTP prioritizes projects that address the Region’s needs over the next 20 years and beyond. The RTP aims to make transportation more convenient, reliable, healthy, and safe. The 2027-2055 RTP will outline investments for all modes of transportation and will form the transportation element of the Wasatch Choice Vision.

The 2027-2055 RTP will be informed by research, discussions, and technical screening and model forecasting to help us understand how the RTP might help us collectively achieve regional quality of life goals (described below). The RTP acknowledges that the Region will not be able to afford all our transportation needs – we must prioritize maintaining a good state of repair, improving safety, and constructing and operating new roadways, transit services, and active transportation facilities. Therefore, the RTP is fiscally constrained within a reasonably anticipated budget using a performance-based planning approach.

This planning process is coordinated with statewide transportation partners to develop common goals, planning time horizons, performance measures, and financial assumptions, which collectively form Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan.

What are some of the focus areas of the RTP?

Exploratory Projects

The Wasatch Choice Vision and RTP outline a bold and forward-thinking future for our Region. In developing the 2027-2055 RTP, WFRC is placing greater emphasis on exploring innovative and exploratory concepts that can shape our transportation system for years to come. This effort is grounded in a careful balance, integrating visionary ideas with practical considerations of context, feasibility, and cost-effectiveness to ensure impactful outcomes for the Region.

Multi-Modal Interaction

When planning transportation systems, analyzing the interactions between different modes of transportation is essential for designing an efficient and user-friendly network. As the 2027-2055 RTP is developed, WFRC is prioritizing strategies to minimize the impacts of planned transportation improvements, ensuring that the network not only meets current mobility needs but also supports economic and community goals. This approach underscores WFRC’s commitment to creating a balanced and integrated transportation system that benefits all users while addressing potential challenges proactively.

Performance Measures

Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC) uses a performance-based planning and programming framework that incorporates federal and regional priorities and objectives. WFRC assesses the status of the Region relative to adopted regional goals, Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan, and Federal performance goals. Every RTP, we work to strengthen our performance framework, and in 2024 we were selected to participate in a national FHWA Transportation Accessibility Pilot Program to broaden our Access to Opportunity work.

Resiliency

To support the region’s growth and adaptability amid future uncertainties—including economic shifts and technological advancements—WFRC is incorporating resiliency in the development of the 2027-2055 RTP. This focus ensures the transportation system remains flexible and capable of meeting the evolving needs of communities, regardless of what the future holds.

Safety

WFRC adopted a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan and a resolution to establish the goal of working towards zero roadway fatalities and serious injuries in 2024. WFRC is committed to continuing to work on evaluating safety to better understand and address safety in the Region through incorporating a safe systems approach, exploring crash factors related to roadway attributes, and facilitating discussions with local communities about roadway, bicycle, and pedestrian safety.

Freight

Freight mobility is a key component of the Wasatch Choice Vision. With the steady growth in e-commerce and continuing changing of shopping habits, there is a need to foster the development of an integrated and coordinated multimodal freight network. WFRC supports communities in facilitating goods movement while maintaining livability. WFRC works closely with UDOT and has reviewed the update to the 2023 Statewide Freight Study to advance freight planning and is a part of advanced air mobility discussions with transportation partners.

In process plan

Adopted Plan

2023-2050 RTP DOCUMENT

2023-2050 RTP WEB MAP

Frequently Asked Questions

Utah’s rapid growth heightens the importance of strategic decisions made now and in the coming decades. The RTP addresses growth patterns and the movement of people and goods, focusing on issues like air quality, cost of living, and roadway congestion. It looks to the future to consider how transportation infrastructure can work with land and economic development decisions to maximize overall quality of life. Further, this RTP creates a framework for understanding and responding to future uncertainties that have the potential to alter our transportation, land use, and economic systems. By doing so, WFRC hopes to foster resilience in the Region that helps cities and counties respond and adapt to future challenges and changes.

WFRC has increasingly emphasized the integration of transportation, land use, and economic development, leading to the adoption of the Wasatch Choice Vision — a shared vision for regional transportation investments, development patterns, and economic opportunities that aim to improve quality of life. The RTP informs this Vision, developed in partnership with agencies including the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), the Utah Transit Authority (UTA), county and city governments, the Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG), other agencies, stakeholders, and the public.

Understanding where residents of the Wasatch Front will live and work in the future is essential to WFRC’s long-range transportation planning and the efforts of local, regional, and state agencies and stakeholders. Every four years, WFRC updates forecasts for population, households, and jobs at the transportation analysis zone (TAZ) level as part of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) process, ensuring that planning efforts align with projected growth and development trends.

https://wfrc.org/vision-plans/regional-transportation-plan/2027rtp/region2055/

The 2027-2055 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) is more than just a transportation blueprint — it’s a roadmap to bringing the Wasatch Choice Vision to life. The RTP is the transportation element of the Wasatch Choice Vision. Designed to meet the evolving needs of the Wasatch Front over the next three decades, the RTP outlines a comprehensive strategy to enhance and optimize regional roadways, transit systems, and active transportation options. Building on the foundation of previous Wasatch Choice Vision efforts, this plan takes a deep dive into long-term capacity needs, shifting travel patterns, and the connections between transportation, land use, and economic activity. It also considers the demands of new growth areas, ensuring a forward-thinking approach to development.

The 2027-2055 RTP aims to improve our Region’s transportation system and quality of life through a two-pronged approach – optimization and enhancement. The optimization of our system includes policies aimed at moving more people within existing transportation facilities and enabling people to have greater access to opportunities with less traffic. The enhancement of our system includes building additional roads, transit lines, and urban trails to provide additional transportation options for people in the Region.

The transportation planning process starts with developing a “preferred scenario” that functions as a “vision” for the future transportation system. The vision considers multiple transportation ideas, scenarios, criteria, and projected future land uses. Once projects are identified and selected to be in the 2027-2055 RTP, they are prioritized based on two key factors: when the project is needed and when funding can reasonably be assumed to pay for the project. This results in the official long-range transportation plan, which strikes a balance between being aspirational and pragmatic. The flow chart below shows how a potential project moves from concept to being considered for implementation. This webpage focuses on the process of identifying projects that should be considered as future Exploratory Concepts or as part of the RTP Preferred Scenario.

WFRC, in partnership with transportation stakeholders and local communities, is developing preliminary screening and technical evaluation criteria for roadway, transit, and active transportation projects to shape a preferred regional vision. These criteria, based on adopted goals and various performance factors, will be used to assess improvements for inclusion in the Wasatch Choice Vision. The 2027-2055 RTP project selection criteria are being created collaboratively with UDOT, UTA, local planners and engineers, the Active Transportation Committee, and the Regional Growth Committee.

Draft Project Selection Criteria

Since the adoption of the 2023-2050 RTP, multiple projects have been studied, planned, and constructed. Major studies have occurred and will help shape the 2027-2055 RTP, including the following:

Construction of major projects
Additional funding from the Utah Legislature
Adoption of active transportation master plans across the Region
Development of the Utah Transit Authority Long Range Transit Plan
Adoption of Amendment #1 and #2 to the 2023-2050 RTP
Point of the Mountain Transit EA
FrontRunner Forward
I-15 Farmington to Salt Lake City EIS
Wall Avenue Corridor Plan
Transit Fresh Look
Northern Utah Co. Point of the Mountain Freeway Study
Capitol Hill Study
9400 South Study
Highway 89/91 Corridor Study
Bangerter Highway 4100 S to California EIS
Hwy 89 from I-84 to Harrison Blvd. EA
Local Transportation Master Plan

As our Region grows, funding transportation is key to keeping communities connected and thriving. The Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) includes a financial plan to demonstrate how roadway, transit, and active transportation facilities will presumably be funded over the life of the plan. Long-range plans must also be “fiscally constrained,” meaning that only those new facilities and recommended improvements that could be funded using existing and reasonably anticipated revenue streams are included in the Plan. This practice enables WFRC and its transportation partners to develop plans that are tied to realistic funding mechanisms and also to identify a financial path forward to project implementation.

The roadway, transit, and active transportation costs and revenue projections for the 2027-2055 RTP will be analyzed by Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC), Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), Utah Transit Authority (UTA), and the three other Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) in the state. A financial model is being developed to help distribute funding, for planning purposes, between the MPOs and the state for the development of their long-range transportation plans. Consistent growth factors, project costs, and new revenue assumptions are being coordinated at this level.

Revenue sources and assumptions for the 2027-2055 RTP are based on coordination between the Utah MPOs (WFRC, Cache MPO, Dixie MPO, and Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG)), UDOT, and UTA. This coordination leads to Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan financial model that includes estimates of potential revenues based on projected sources for transportation improvements through the year 2055. This financial model is used by each agency when fiscally constraining their respective plans. Assumptions of new funding sources for transportation projects include additional local option sales taxes and increased vehicle registration fees, or their equivalent.

All roadway, transit, and active transportation projects in the 2027-2055 RTP will be selected and phased based on need and fiscal constraints. Costs are being estimated for new construction, operations, and maintenance for each mode to determine which projects could be included in each of the 2027-2055 RTP’s three funded phases. Similar to revenues, the four MPOs, UDOT, and UTA are working together to determine planning-level unit costs by facility type for each transportation mode.

In comparing necessary transportation costs to revenues, there will be more needed projects than the anticipated revenues can fund. To balance costs with revenues, some projects will be moved to future phases later than when the project is needed, or will be placed into the “unfunded” time frame of the RTP, meaning it is not anticipated these projects would be built between now and 2055.

Active transportation facilities will be ranked, phased based on need and fiscally constrained. There is no federal requirement for active transportation projects to be fiscally constrained or to identify a funding source. However, Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan Financial Model will project potential available revenues based on historic trends sourced from federal, state, and local funds, such as the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP), the Utah Safe Routes to School Program, and the WFRC-administered Surface Transportation Program (STP), Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Program, and the Carbon Reduction Program (CRP) and also projections based on new state funding sources such as the Transportation Investment Fund – Active (TIF Active), Transit Transportation Investment Fund – First-/Last-Mile (TTIF FLM), and Active Transportation Investment Fund (ATIF). Assumptions to maintain active transportation projects have been identified for the existing system and the future enhancements.

The phasing of the 2027-2055 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) roadway, transit, and active transportation projects will be guided by the Wasatch Choice Vision regional goals, which were adopted by the Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC). These goals will inform the criteria, weighting, and methodology used to phase projects, and will differ slightly by transportation mode. WFRC will use a variety of tools to forecast the timing and impact of anticipated growth, such as the regional Travel Demand Model (TDM) and the Real Estate Market Model (REMM). Travel-related and socioeconomic forecasts from these models will be used to assign points to each transportation project in the near- and long-term time horizon within the 28 years of the Plan. Projects are phased roughly by decade using technical data from the sources above, along with input from WFRC’s partners, including the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), Utah Transit Authority (UTA), local communities, stakeholders, and the public.

WFRC will develop a two-tiered phasing process in which WFRC, in consultation with UDOT, UTA, local communities, and stakeholders, first identifies the phase a project is needed and then assesses fiscal constraints for the three phases. A project is considered to be in a certain “phase” either according to its programmed funding or based on its anticipated construction start date, as determined by projected planned revenues. The three phases of the 2027-2055 RTP are Phase 1: 2027 to 2036, Phase 2: 2037 to 2046, and Phase 3: 2047 to 2055. Funding is not projected to be available for all projects, and some projects will end up being placed in the unfunded portion of the plan, although they are still considered needed by 2055.

The 2027-2055 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) will be a blueprint for a brighter future, delivering tangible benefits to our communities by improving air quality, bolstering our economy, and safeguarding the exceptional quality of life Utahns cherish. With the state’s population expected to significantly increase by 40.7% between 2027 and 2055, proactive and thoughtful transportation planning is essential to meet the demands of growth while preserving what makes Utah special.

The RTP will lay out a balanced approach, investing in roads, transit, and active transportation to meet the needs of the rapidly changing Wasatch Front region. It will address demographic shifts, rising market demand for diverse housing and transportation options, and the pressing need for sustainable infrastructure. By implementing this plan, we expect to enhance access to jobs and education, improve safety, and ensure the upkeep of our existing transportation system, keeping Utah moving forward while staying true to its values.

The RTP has an anticipated adoption date of May 2027. Check back in early 2027 to see how the RTP benefits the Region through measures such as access to opportunities, transportation choices, transit use, mode split, travel time, and freight delay!

How to Get Involved

Check back soon for more information on how you can get involved with the development of the 2027-2055 Regional Transportation Plan, or subscribe to the WFRC Newsletter, and we’ll let you know when we are seeking feedback.