Washington County is small on a map, and the mileage backs that up. Utah Department of Transportation mileposts put the St. George Boulevard interchange at I-15 milepost 8.666 and the Hurricane exit at milepost 15.948, which is 7.28 miles of freeway between them. The reason commutes here still catch people out is that nearly all of the traffic squeezes through a handful of segments, and the busiest of those carries 72,000 vehicles on an average day. I pulled UDOT's 2024 traffic counts for I-15, SR-9, Bluff Street and St. George Boulevard so you can see where the volume actually sits before you decide which side of the county to live on.
The distances here are shorter than almost anyone guesses
Highway distance here is easy to pin down exactly, because UDOT publishes a milepost reference at every interchange and major cross street on its state routes. Subtracting one milepost from another gives the real driving distance along that road rather than a straight line across the desert. The table below pairs that distance with UDOT's Annual Average Daily Traffic count for the same stretch, the average number of vehicles crossing that point on a typical day, from the department's 2024 data, the most recent year published as of October 2026.
| Stretch of road | UDOT mileposts | Highway miles | 2024 average daily traffic |
|---|---|---|---|
| I-15, Exit 6 (Bluff Street) to Exit 8 (St. George Boulevard) | 6.319 to 8.666 | 2.35 | 55,000 |
| I-15, Exit 8 to Exit 10 (Green Springs Drive, Washington City) | 8.666 to 10.928 | 2.26 | 72,000 |
| I-15, Exit 10 to Exit 13 (Washington Parkway) | 10.928 to 13.415 | 2.49 | 70,000 |
| I-15, Exit 13 to Exit 16 (SR-9, the Hurricane exit) | 13.415 to 15.948 | 2.53 | 65,000 |
| I-15, Exit 16 north toward Leeds | 15.948 to 22.631 | 6.68 | 32,000 |
| SR-9, 5300 West to Main Street in Hurricane | 2.770 to 9.782 | 7.01 | 44,000 |
| Bluff Street (SR-18), St. George Boulevard to Sunset Boulevard | 2.110 to 3.186 | 1.08 | 54,000 |
| SR-18, Ledges Parkway to Diamond Valley Drive | 8.567 to 12.590 | 4.02 | 8,000 |
| SR-18, Diamond Valley Drive to Dammeron Valley | 12.590 to 17.307 | 4.72 | 6,300 |
Mileposts and traffic counts verified October 8, 2026 from UDOT's published 2024 AADT data, available on the UDOT traffic statistics page at connect.udot.utah.gov. Distances are the difference between the two published mileposts on the same route.
Downtown St. George to Main Street in Hurricane works out to about 17.1 miles of state highway, and St. George to Dammeron Valley to about 17.3 miles up SR-18. Once you clear Exit 16 heading north the freeway count drops by half, so Leeds and Toquerville are easier drives than the mileage suggests.
Where the volume actually sits
The busiest piece of road in Washington County is I-15 between Exit 8 and Exit 10, at 72,000 vehicles a day in 2024, up from 67,000 in 2023. The next stretch north, Exit 10 to Exit 13 through Washington City, carries 70,000. That is the section most people are picturing when they say traffic in St. George has gotten bad, and the counts back them up: the Washington City stretch added 6,000 vehicles a day between 2023 and 2024.
The surface streets are where the numbers get surprising. St. George Boulevard between 1000 East and the freeway carries 58,000 vehicles a day across less than a fifth of a mile. Bluff Street between St. George Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard carries 54,000 across just over a mile. Both of those are doing freeway-level volume on city streets with signals, driveways and left turns, which is why a two-minute drive on paper takes eight minutes at the wrong time of day.
Go north on SR-18 past Snow Canyon Parkway and the picture inverts. Ledges Parkway to Diamond Valley Drive carries 8,000 a day, and Diamond Valley up to Dammeron Valley 6,300. What you buy out there is a longer drive on an empty highway instead of a short drive in a queue, and in my experience showing homes up that way people either love that trade immediately or discover in the first month that they do not.
The two intersections the county itself names
A Washington County fact sheet dated October 30, 2025 names the two road bottlenecks in the St. George area as River Road at St. George Boulevard, and Bluff Street at Sunset Boulevard. The same document says that Red Hills Parkway, I-15, Bluff Street and St. George Boulevard all see periods of congestion under today's conditions and lack the reserve capacity to handle future travel demand. That is the county's own position in a document arguing for a new road, so read it with that in mind, but the two intersections it names are the two I would have named myself.
What I see on showings lines up with that. The tight window runs roughly 7:30 to 8:15 in the morning and it is short. Bluff Street southbound stacks at Sunset, River Road backs up approaching the Boulevard, and the Exit 8 ramps get thick. Afternoons spread wider, closer to 4:30 to 5:45, and they move better. If your drive misses those two intersections you may never notice a commute here, and plenty of my clients who came from Las Vegas or the Wasatch Front do not.
What this means when you are picking a neighborhood
I-15 between Exit 6 and Exit 8 is being rebuilt right now, and it is worth knowing before you commit to a daily drive through it. UDOT is widening that 2.35 mile stretch from two lanes to three in each direction, replacing the bridges and raising the freeway at 100 South and 700 South, and building new bridges over 400 East and 900 South to create local street crossings underneath. UDOT's March 26, 2026 construction announcement put the cost at $175 million and said work would begin that summer and finish in the winter of 2028. The department's own project page gives a different range, Fall 2026 through Spring 2029, so check UDOT's project page for the St. George Boulevard to Bluff Street work before you rely on either date from me. It is at udotinput.utah.gov/i15stgeorge.
School runs decide as many commutes as work does, and the Washington County School District does not publish one set of bell times district-wide. Its school hours page sends families to each individual school's site, so confirm the start time with the school your address actually feeds. Boundaries and open enrollment are covered in my separate post on which school your child will attend in St. George, linked here: St. George school boundaries and open enrollment.
The commute question tends to sort buyers three ways. Those who want to stay inside the short-drive core look at central St. George and Washington City, which is the St. George homes for sale page. Those willing to trade fifteen minutes for more house per dollar look east to the Hurricane Valley. Those building new are mostly looking south and east toward Desert Color and Washington Fields, which is the St. George new construction page. Current pricing for all three is kept on the St. George market summary.
St. George homes for sale | Hurricane Valley homes | St. George new construction | St. George market summary
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the drive from St. George to Hurricane?
About 17.1 miles of state highway. UDOT mileposts put it at 7.28 miles on I-15 from the St. George Boulevard interchange to the SR-9 Hurricane exit, then 9.78 miles on SR-9 from the freeway to Main Street in Hurricane. Outside of the morning peak that is a drive of roughly 20 to 25 minutes.
What is the busiest road in St. George, Utah?
I-15 between Exit 8 and Exit 10, which carried 72,000 vehicles a day in UDOT's 2024 count. The busiest surface street is St. George Boulevard between 1000 East and the freeway at 58,000 a day, followed by Bluff Street between St. George Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard at 54,000.
Where does traffic back up in St. George?
A Washington County fact sheet dated October 30, 2025 names two intersections as the area's bottlenecks: River Road at St. George Boulevard, and Bluff Street at Sunset Boulevard. The same document lists Red Hills Parkway, I-15, Bluff Street and St. George Boulevard as roads that already see periods of congestion. In my experience the worst of it falls between about 7:30 and 8:15 on weekday mornings.
Is I-15 being widened through St. George?
Yes. UDOT is widening I-15 from two lanes to three in each direction between Bluff Street (Exit 6) and St. George Boulevard (Exit 8), along with new bridges over 400 East and 900 South and rebuilt crossings at 100 South and 700 South. UDOT's March 26, 2026 construction announcement put the cost at $175 million with completion in the winter of 2028, while the project page lists Spring 2029, so confirm the schedule on UDOT's project page.
Weighing a St. George neighborhood against the drive?
If you are down to two neighborhoods and the daily drive is what is deciding it, call me at 435-200-5508 and I will tell you what each one looks like at a quarter to eight in the morning. I have sold real estate in St. George for 13 years and I drive these roads every working day. If a form is easier than a phone call, my contact form is linked below.