Fact is, experts say, Utah County's roads are in a jam. Traffic south of the Utah County-Salt Lake County line already borders on bad and is projected to become much worse as the county's numbers climb. Their prescription: massive doses of roads and massive amounts of money to build them.
Darrell Cook, executive director of Mountainland Association of Governments, says an overhaul of Interstate 15 in Utah County - planned for 2011 - won't help without more and better intercity roads to handle the overflow from the interstate during construction.
"If we don't get" the roads, Cook says, "Utah County stops. Everything would grind to a halt. We really have no alternatives."
Utah Department of Transportation officials agree commuters need other options once work starts on Utah County's sole stretch of freeway.
"In Salt Lake, there were other alternates . . . available during that construction," says UDOT spokesman Geoff Dupaix, noting motorists there could detour to Interstate 215, Bangerter Highway, Interstate 80, Wasatch Drive and others. "In Utah County, similar to Davis and Weber counties, the north-south route is limited."
To give commuters more choices, state and regional transportation officials are focusing on upgrading several major traffic arteries to ease the pinch to I-15 when work turns it into a two-lane quagmire. But funding the upgrades won't be easy. Planners' wish list of roads is long - Redwood Road through Lehi, State Street in American Fork and Pleasant Grove, and Geneva Road in Orem and Provo, among others - and they are woefully short of cash. Legislators earmarked $100 million for transportation this year. But that money will be spread statewide, and all but $10 million of the total is committed to ongoing projects.
Utah County road projects carry a $285 million price tag - an amount that doesn't account for a $92 million commuter-rail line proposed for the area.
"I would be a bit naive to think that all those projects are going to get funded," said Dave Nazare, Utah Department of Transportation Region 3 director. "There are too many needs."
Jan Wells, a member of the Utah Transportation Committee that makes the funding decisions, says at least the state allocated money for transportation this year. What's more, she adds, many Utah counties are in the same boat when it comes to roads.
"There are projects all over the state that are in the same position," Wells says. "There needs to be balance" [in allocating these funds].
For his part, Cook knows his team must go elsewhere to bridge the funding gap.
He and other planners recently went as far as Washington, where they pleaded their cause to members of Utah's congressional delegation. While they would be happy with $20 million or $30 million in federal dollars, planners are not banking on it or standing idle until help arrives. They are taking nothing - time or money - for granted.
Cook says traffic snarls are already common on I-15, which now has three lanes. "You jam [traffic] into two lanes and you get [even more] backups."
Fortunately, some help is on the way. A handful of the projects have either full or partial funding.
State Route 92 to Alpine and Highland, 800 North in Orem, and the railroad bridge over State Street in Pleasant Grove headline that list.
Cook, however, insists all the work on those roads must be completed to pave the way for I-15 makeover, especially with the county's unprecedented growth.
"Every year, we're adding population equal to the size of Payson," he says.
Utah County's population is expected to reach 800,000 by 2030, nearly double its current numbers. More people translates into more cars and trucks clogging county roads.
Cook has already seen what can happen.
"In 2000, we predicted rush hour gridlock by 2007," he said. "It's 2006 and we're almost there."
thollingshead@sltrib.com
