page_title: Utah State Route 128
section_title: From trail to highway
hierarchical_section_title: Utah State Route 128 / History / From trail to highway
caption_attribution_description: English: a typical scene along Utah State Route 128
context_page_description: State Route 128 is a 44.564-mile-long state highway in the U.S. state of Utah. The entire length of the highway has been designated the Upper Colorado River Scenic Byway, as part of the Utah Scenic Byways program. This road also forms part of the Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway, a National Scenic Byway. Residents of Moab frequently refer to SR-128 as "the river road", after the Colorado River, which the highway follows.
  The highway was originally constructed to connect rural cities in eastern Utah with Grand Junction, Colorado, the largest city in the region. Part of the highway was merged into the Utah state highway system in 1931; the rest was taken over by the state and assigned route number 128 in 1933. Today, the highway is used as a scenic drive for visitors to the area.
  The highway crosses the Colorado River at the site of the Dewey Bridge, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This bridge was the longest suspension bridge in Utah until April 2008 when it was destroyed by a fire started by a child playing with matches.
context_section_description: With the bridge finished in 1916, by the 1920s the toll road was reconstructed above the ordinary high water mark so it could be used year-round. The road was briefly used for the route of the Midland Trail across eastern Utah. However, by 1923 the trail had been moved to a more direct routing, similar to modern I-70. The road from Moab along the river to Castleton was added to the state highway network in 1931, as SR-129. In 1933, the route was redesignated  SR-128 and extended to Cisco. The highway was gradually upgraded to a two-lane paved roadway.
  The state legislature extended SR-128 about 3 miles (5 km) at its east end in 1969, due to the pending construction of Interstate 70. Plans called for the freeway to bypass the Cisco area, including the terminus of SR-128. The legislature transferred a portion of SR-4 (the legislative designation for what was then signed US-6/US-50) near Cisco to the proposed interchange with I-70. When that part of I-70 was completed in 1971, signs were changed to SR-128 on its portion of the old road, while the remainder of the bypassed road through Cisco was relinquished to the county.
  The highway was recognized by the Utah Scenic Byways program for its scenic value and given the name Upper Colorado River Scenic Byway.  The highway was recognized as a National Scenic Byway and named as part of the Dinosaur Diamond Scenic Byway in 1998. A petition is currently before the Federal Highway Administration to recognize Route 128 as an All-American Road. To meet this criterion the highway must be deemed by the administration to have enough scenic value to be a "destination unto itself".
caption: SR-128 approaching Drinks Canyon
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