East on Utah State Route 7 from its western terminus, January 2014.
State Route 7 starts at its intersection with I-15 in southwest St. George. From here it travels southeast for about 3 miles (4.8 km) 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 north-northeast and continues for 15 miles (24.1 km), passing Airport Parkway (which accesses the St. George Regional Airport) and Long Valley Road[5] until reaching Sand Hollow Road, having an interchange with the road immediately southwest of Sand Hollow State Park. From this point onwards, State Route 7 continues east for an additional 8 miles (12.9 km), following the southern boundary of Sand Hollow State Park before gradually curving north and ending at an intersection with State Route 9 just west of downtown Hurricane.
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.[3]
The first portion of the freeway opened July 7, 2009, a link between Exit 2 at I-15 south of Bloomington (a suburb within the city of St. George) to River Road in south St. George spanning 4 miles (6.4 km).[7] The second portion was completed in November 2010, extending further east to the new St. George Regional Airport. The third and final segment of State Route 7 between Sand Hollow Road and State Route 9 would finally open to traffic on May 20, 2021.[8] The highway began as a mostly two-lane highway with at-grade intersections, envisioned to eventually be converted to a four-lane divided freeway. [9] The majority of these intersections have been updated to the planned interchanges.
