SR-177, also known as West Davis Highway, is a 16-mile highway that currently stretches from Farmington to West Point, with more than 10 miles of trails. The Utah Department of Transportation added new box culverts, vehicle bridges, pedestrian bridges, and embankments. A major challenge of the project was working with existing soils, which were prone to initial and secondary settlement.

Innovative Geotechnical Considerations

Kleinfelder served as the design-builder’s geotechnical engineer for Segment 1, which is located adjacent to Farmington Bay of the Great Salt Lake, where groundwater is nearly at the surface, high artesian conditions exist in layers starting below 20 feet, and the fine-grained lacustrine soils are highly susceptible to settlement. Kleinfelder designed a test fill that included instrumentation to closely monitor settlement. The test fill was pivotal for providing settlement rates and surcharge design. In addition to the surcharges that were constructed early to optimize the construction schedule, this segment included embankments that were constructed using lightweight fill materials including cellular concrete and geofoam.

Construction Services

Kleinfelder was also retained by the construction team to oversee instrumentation during construction. Special attention was allocated to settlement analysis and monitoring for structures due to soils prone to initial and secondary settlement within the proposed alignment.

Segment 1 features included box culverts at Baer Creek, Farmington Creek, Haight Creek, Shepard Creek, and Steed Creek, as well as:

Bridges:

• Over I-15 at I-15 Northbound to West Davis Corridor Northbound
• Over Legacy Parkway Northbound to West Davis Corridor Northbound
• Over West Davis Corridor Southbound to I-15 Southbound
• Over West Davis Corridor at 1525 West, 650 West, 950 North, and Glovers Lane

New Embankments:

• Along pedestrian trail
• Along West Davis Corridor
• For West Davis Corridor Southbound to Legacy Parkway Southbound

Pedestrian Bridges:

• Over West Davis Corridor at Buffalo Ranch Trail, Denver and Rio Grande Trail, and Shoreline Trail

Project Results

Construction began in 2021 and was completed in 2024 for this phase of the project. This new roadway system provides important transportation relief for current and future development in western Davis County.

The project received a National Recognition Award at the 2025 American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Engineering Excellence Awards, the Keep Utah Moving Award (presented at the annual Utah Transportation Conference in November 2024), and earned the No. 2 spot on the Top 10 Roads list for 2024 from Roads & Bridges magazine.

Project Details

Location:
Davis County, UT
Owner:
Utah Department of Transportation