BLM reconsiders previously rejected Northern Corridor Highway through this National Conservation Area

ST. GEORGE, Utah (ABC4) — Last week, the Bureau of Land Management resurrected a decades-old battle over a potentially hazardous highway project in St. George.

The application aims to build a four-lane road known as the Northern Corridor Highway through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. The proposal was rejected in December 2024 after a

large opposition campaign led by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA).

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) submitted the application years ago. According to SUWA, the proposal has been previously rejected seven times due to concerns over the proposed highway’s impact on desert tortoise habitats within the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve.

According to BLM, the new proposal includes a new alternative called the “Red Hills Parkway Expressway” which would convert Red Hills Parkway into an expressway between I-15 and Bluff Street in St. George.

The proposal includes flyover ramps connecting Red Hills Parkway to I-15 and would widen the road at various locations. It would also convert intersections at 200 East and 1000 East to interchanges.

Despite the changes to the original application, the alternative plan would still require “moving the existing tortoise fencing,” the proposal reads. Previous environmental studies show the project could also lead to more wildfires.

According to SUWA, the corridor would tear through the Mojave desert tortoise’s critical habit.

“Pursuing this unlawful and outdated idea would cause significant harm to the people, plants and wildlife of Washington County, even though better transportation solutions exist,” Canada said.

“Despite years of failed attempts, Washington County officials have made it clear they are going to keep spending taxpayer dollars on a plan to ram a highway through a National Conservation Area,” Holly Snow Canada, the executive director at Conserve Southwest Utah, said.

UDOT’s application states that it aims to reduce congestion with the proposed highway and improve east-west mobility between I-15 and SR 18 near milepost 13.

“This objective is driven by the current and forecast population growth within the county, which will continue to increase demand on the transportation network,” the proposal says. “Currently, the existing transportation network… is not adequate to meet future travel demand.”

The area in question falls on the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve that was established in 1995 as part of a compromise to protect roughly 61,000 acres of public lands for the tortoise while opening 300,000 acres for development.