The Trump administration for the second time has approved a contentious highway corridor across the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area in Utah that is almost certain to be challenged in court.
The approval announced Wednesday by the Bureau of Land Management reverses a 2024 Biden-era decision that had rejected the corridor, and instead approved an alternative plan. That plan called for making improvements to an existing roadway overseen by the city of St. George that runs south of the Red Cliffs NCA, and away from a preserve for the federally threatened Mojave Desert tortoise.
But BLM said in a final decision record and environmental assessment published Wednesday that it is “terminating” the Biden alternative after the state of Utah provided evidence proving “the technical and economic infeasibility of the Red Hills Parkway Expressway alternative.”
The highway corridor is a major win for the state, whose Republican-led congressional delegation has for years pushed for the corridor, which would pave the way for a four-lane highway across the Red Cliffs NCA that the lawmakers say is badly needed to ease traffic congestion in St. George — one of the nation’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas.
