Legislators take road trip to check out traffic
Vehicles from nearby cities clog Lehi's Main Street
Such stories frustrate Lehi Mayor Ken Greenwood, who is growing increasingly exasperated with state transportation officials.
It's time, he says, to stop talking and start working on a solution to the traffic woes facing Lehi and surrounding Utah County cities.
"No more dialogue. We need tools," Greenwood said as the Legislative Transportation Task Force met in Lehi Wednesday.
Greenwood called the traffic on Lehi's bumper-to-bumper Main Street — which is technically U-73 — a "nightmare."
"Our people," he said, "can't even shop at our stores."
Greenwood said traffic in Lehi is largely cars and trucks from Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain.
"We love them but they're killing us," Greenwood said of his neighbor cities.
Greenwood said the 1999 daily count of cars and trucks driving on U-73 was 15,000. Today, according to the Mountainlands Association of Governments, is close to 30,000.
"Our task is getting our people across the road," Greenwood said.
Greenwood said Utah County needs three east-west corridors identified by MAG in a 1998 study — one is U-73 — but an immediate solution would be to develop 2300 West adjacent to the new Willow Springs Middle School and push it through to Thanksgiving Point and out to connect with the Alpine/Highland freeway exit.
He said Lehi is willing to borrow the $1.5 million to do that — but the money is in a state infrastructure fund designated only for state roads.
Greenwood was not the only north county official frustrated with the traffic situation created by explosive growth and few, two-lane roads.
Saratoga Springs Mayor Timothy Parker said residents in his city depend on the ability to move commuters and shoppers to the I-15 corridor.
Eagle Mountain Councilman David Blackburn said his residents are entirely at the mercy of the road system. He said the city attorney was forced to drive to Tooele, then back toward the Cedar Valley to get to a city meeting the night the freeway was shut down by an accident.
"It's a north county situation that involves all of us," he said.
Carlos Braceras, deputy director for Utah's Department of Transportation, said Utah County's problems are "very poignant but they are not unique." He said other areas of the state have great needs as well.
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