History
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.
Read more about this topic: Utah State Route 313
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