Drivers approaching the mouth of Sardine Canyon on U.S. Highway 89/91 encounter a starkly reconfigured road layout this autumn as the Utah Department of Transportation finishes a $6.3 million safety project in Cache County.
Between 2019 and 2023, state records documented 51 crashes within a half-mile of the intersection where State Route 23 meets the national highway, including nine crashes directly at the crossing and one fatality. To address the persistent danger, the state completed construction on Sept. 22 on a restricted crossing U-turn, commonly known as an RCUT.
How the RCUT Alters Traffic Flow at Center Street
The new configuration fundamentally changes how motorists drive through Wellsville’s Center Street. Drivers can no longer turn left directly onto U.S. 89/91 or cross the highway’s five lanes of traffic in a single maneuver. Instead, motorists must turn right and proceed to a designated spot to make a U-turn.
Mitch Shaw, a spokesperson for the Utah Department of Transportation, explained that the design removes the high-risk gamble of waiting for a gap in fast-moving traffic coming out of the canyon. If you’re at a stop sign, and you’re sitting there waiting, the more and more you have to wait, it’s like a direct correlation between waiting and your decision making becoming kind of impaired,
Shaw said. You make worse decisions.
Federal data supports the approach. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, implementing RCUTs where minor roads meet bigger highways can reduce injury and fatal crashes by over 50%. State planners also note that the project carries a much smaller financial and environmental footprint than a full highway interchange, which typically costs at least $100 million.
Local Skepticism and the Question of Long-Term Growth
Despite the projected safety gains, local leaders remain cautious. Wellsville Mayor Chad Lindley said that while city officials do not have an official stance, many residents initially hoped for a grade-separated overpass or underpass to handle the heavy traffic.
Honestly, we wanted a structure. We wanted an overpass, underpass structure,
Lindley said. While the inclusion of a pedestrian underpass eased some worries, Lindley questions whether the RCUT serves as an adequate long-term fix for a rapidly growing region, estimating an overpass would have provided a 50-year solution compared to the RCUT’s projected 2050 lifespan.
Agricultural operators in the valley have also expressed reluctance to use the new turns, citing the slower speeds of heavy farm machinery. Lindley noted that some drivers may choose to bypass the intersection entirely by utilizing alternate rural roads.
State officials acknowledge these behavioral hurdles but emphasize that infrastructure can only guide choices, not control them. We have limited control of what people are going to do on the road,
Shaw said. We can’t hold everyone’s hand and make them do exactly what they’re supposed to, we can only provide them with the infrastructure for them to do that, and that’s what we’ve done here.
First Collision Results from Disregarded Roadway Markings
Questions about the intersection’s safety surfaced almost immediately after its debut. Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Zach Randall confirmed that a single-vehicle collision occurred at the intersection on Sept. 23, just one day after the RCUT opened.
According to Randall, the driver was turning off of U.S. 89/91 onto Center Street—a movement unaffected by the U-turn requirement—when the vehicle entered the median prematurely, struck a raised concrete island, and hit a traffic sign. State crash data lists the contributing factor as disregarded roadway markings rather than the new design.
With the infrastructure now slated to manage traffic for the next few decades, state engineers are already evaluating similar deployments elsewhere as Utah addresses regional growth.
