Moab Trail Project Opens First Test of Utah’s 3,100-Mile Network Plan

A 0.7-mile paved trail in Moab is doing more than filling a missing link. It is closing one of the Colorado River corridor’s most awkward gaps, and it is the first real construction test of Utah’s far bigger plan to stitch together 3,100 miles of paved trails and existing routes across the state.

Crews started work on the State Route 128 connection that will tie the Colorado River Pathway to Grandstaff Canyon and the Porcupine Rim trail area on Bureau of Land Management land. The route has long forced cyclists to merge onto the narrow two-lane highway after Goose Island Campground, where traffic often squeezed past bikes and, in some cases, crossed into the oncoming lane. The new off-street path is meant to pull hikers and riders out of that exposure point and give them a cleaner connection to some of Moab’s most popular terrain.

That local fix is the point. The Utah Department of Transportation said the Moab segment is the first of more than 20 Utah Trail Network projects now in development. The master plan calls for 2,600 miles of new paved trails and 500 miles of existing trails, a 3,100-mile system officials say is meant to connect communities, destinations, schools, parks and recreation areas. The statewide idea was announced in 2022, and the master plan map was finalized in November 2025.

For Moab travelers, the impact is immediate, and so are the headaches. Construction began March 9, and intermittent one-way traffic has already created weekday delays of up to eight minutes along the corridor. The project may require one-lane alternating traffic and lane reductions for as long as 300 days. At Grandstaff Campground, 6 of the 16 first-come, first-served sites were closed during the work, a reminder that even a small trail segment can ripple into trip planning on one of the region’s busiest river corridors.

The project is budgeted at $12.5 million and is expected to wrap up in early 2027. That makes the Moab build a practical test of whether Utah can turn its network pitch into real trip value on the ground. If this segment works, it will do what the state says the larger system should do: move people safely off highways and onto paths built for walking, riding and connecting the places travelers actually want to reach.