Utah State Route 7


State Route 7, also known as Southern Parkway, is a state highway in southern Washington County in the extreme southwestern portion of the US state of Utah. It connects the southern periphery of St George with Hurricane, while providing access to the St. George Regional Airport.

Route description

State Route 7 starts at its intersection with I-15 in southwest St. George. From here it travels southeast for about to immediately north of the Utah-Arizona border, then turning east and paralleling the border. Past interchanges at Desert Color Parkway and River Road, the road turns east-northeast and continues for until reaching its temporary terminus at Sand Hollow Road, passing Airport Parkway and Long Valley Road.
The route as it exists today, as well as the planned connection from the current eastern terminus to SR-9, is included in the National Highway System.

History

Since the 1977 Utah state route renumbering, no route in Utah had been designated as State Route 7, until 2009 when the Utah State Legislature added the Southern Parkway from Pioneer Road to River Road to the state highway system.
The first portion of the freeway opened 7 July 2009, a link between Exit 2 at I-15 south of Bloomington to River Road in south east St. George spanning. It is the southern portion of a two-phase beltway around the St. George metro area. The second portion was completed in November 2010, extending further east to the new St. George Regional Airport. The highway is eventually planned to extend northeast—as a four-lane freeway—to Hurricane, although initially there will be some at-grade intersections. These will be converted to interchanges as traffic volumes warrant.

Major intersections