page_title: Utah State Route 313
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Utah State Route 313 / History
caption_attribution_description: English: SR-313 north of Dead Horse Point State Park
context_page_description: State Route 313 is a 22.506-mile-long state highway in San Juan and Grand Counties in the U.S. State of Utah. The highway has been designated the Dead Horse Point Mesa Scenic Byway. The highway is an access road for both the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. The highway is a toll road in Dead Horse Point State Park. Westbound traffic is charged a state park entrance fee at the park boundary.
  The route was assigned north of Moab in the 1975 in place of SR-278, a proposed but never constructed access to Dead Horse Point. The original alignment of the highway featured steep grades and blind corners. The highway was completely rebuilt in the 1980s after sustaining damage while crews rebuilt the access road to Canyonlands National Park.
context_section_description: With highways in and near Moab back in the 1960s limited to just two state-maintained highways, there was no state route built to access Dead Horse Point. The only two highways in the area were U.S. Route 160 (now U.S. Route 191) and State Route 128. There were two routes assigned in the direction of Dead Horse Point in the 1960s, SR-278 and SR-279. The route that SR-313 runs along was mapped by 1969, stretching all the way to Dead Horse Point as an unmarked county highway. Though SR-279 was completed in 1962, SR-278 was never constructed. In 1975, the proposal for SR-278 was cancelled. In its place, the Utah Department of Transportation assigned SR-313, assuming maintenance for what was local roads.
  The original roadbed featured blind switchbacks and an 11% grade on the descent into Seven Mile canyon. The access road to Canyonlands National Park was rebuilt 1988, and the construction crews severely damaged SR-313 in the process. The highway was completely rebuilt, starting in 1989, to its modern form. The reconstruction reduced the maximum grade from 11% to 8% and re-graded the switchbacks to be on level ground to eliminate the blind corners.
caption: SR-313 north of Dead Horse Point State Park, looking south
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