Moab launches first Utah Trail Network project to bypass highway hazard

Cyclists, runners and families moving between Moab and the SR-128 corridor now have a long-awaited workaround for one of the area’s most dangerous gaps: a 0.7-mile paved trail that will pull people off a narrow highway stretch with little or no shoulder near Grandstaff Canyon and Grandstaff Campground.

Crews began work on the first Utah Trail Network construction project this spring, turning the Colorado River Trail gap into the state’s first on-the-ground test of a plan that aims to stitch together paved routes across Utah. In Moab, the payoff is immediate and practical. The new segment is meant to connect two existing pieces of trail between milepost 2.4 and about milepost 3, giving bike riders and pedestrians a safer way to move between town, the river corridor and nearby trail access without mixing with fast-moving traffic on State Route 128.

The project matters because the current setup has forced people onto a roadway built for cars, not steady recreation traffic. UDOT has described that stretch as a well-known safety problem in one of Utah’s busiest outdoor recreation corridors, and local advocates have pushed for years to close it. Once finished, the paved connection should make it easier to reach trailheads, river access points and the camp area around Grandstaff without relying on a vehicle for every transition.

The trail gap is also the first visible piece of a much larger statewide buildout. Utah first publicly advanced the Utah Trail Network concept in 2022, then the Utah Legislature backed it in 2023 with Senate Bill 185, setting aside $45 million in ongoing funding and another $45 million one-time for UDOT. In 2024, the Utah Transportation Commission approved nearly $95 million for 19 new paved trails or existing trail-gap projects, and UDOT said the early program would eventually link 208 towns and cities.

For Moab, that broad vision comes with a local price tag of $12.5 million. UDOT presented an update on the Colorado River Trail Gap to the Grand County Commission on May 6, 2025, and recent reporting said construction could bring alternating one-lane traffic and lane reductions for up to 300 days, with some temporary impacts near Grandstaff Campground.

The state says the master plan now outlines 3,100 miles of connected paved trails, including 2,600 miles of new trail and 500 miles of existing trail folded into the network. UDOT says it intends to finish the master plan in summer 2026, but in Moab the first real-world test is already underway: a highway hazard that used to block everyday movement is being replaced by a safer route built for the way people actually travel the Colorado River corridor.