Upon the completion of the parallel Interstate 80 (I-80), the previous U.S. Route designations were deleted from the United States Numbered Highway System, and the cut-off was turned over to the county.

The cut-off travels due east by I-80 to the north and the now Union Pacific Central Corridor railroad tracks to the south.

Metaphor: The Tree of Utah was built on the northern side of I-80 in the middle of the salt flats further east from the rest area.

[7] Although maintained as part of the Tooele County road network,[8] the portion of the cut-off designated Federal Aid Route 2654 is surveyed by the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) to measure traffic volumes.

By comparison, traffic on the parallel I-80 between the Nevada state line and Leppy Pass Road (the Bonneville Speedway exit, and the end of Federal Aid Route 2654 on the cut-off) ranges between 6,765 and 7,345 vehicles per day.

[9] The Western Pacific Railroad line,[10] part of the Feather River Route,[11] that parallels the cut-off was built between 1906 and 1907,[12] filling a causeway with rock and gravel at a great cost.

Early Lincoln Highway guides advised that travelers whose vehicles became disabled near Fish Springs could set fire to tumbleweed, as it could be seen by rescuers up to 20 miles (32 km) away.

[17] The original alignment was then routed through various ranches and mining towns such as Callao, Gold Hill, and Ibapah to Ely, and not through Wendover.

[29] The Victory Highway Association called the cut-off the "shortest and most feasible route across the Great Salt Lake Desert".

[35] The US-40 designation was deleted by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), in concurrence with UDOT, on August 18, 1974,[36] and the US-50 Alt designation was deleted by AASHTO, also in concurrence with UDOT, on August 27, 1976,[37] in effect turning the cut-off over to Tooele County as a county road.