Some Utah County mayors see it - sooner. But state and regional planners see it later, perhaps much later.

"The numbers just don't work right now," says Teri Newell, project manager for the proposed Mountain View Corridor. "There aren't enough people who want to travel that entire distance."

Instead, the Utah Department of Transportation and the Mountainland Association of Governments plan to link the highway to I-15 north of Utah Lake.

MAG calculates that by 2030 fewer than 20,000 vehicles a day would take the mayors' west-side dream road. Whereas, more than 60,000 would use an east-side I-15 interchange near Pleasant Grove.

Most commuters would want to go to Orem and Provo anyway, says Darrell Cook, MAG's executive director.

That doesn't mean the west-side road would not be an option 20 to 30 years from now, when Utah County's population is expected to jump from today's 460,000 to more than 900,000, Cook adds.

The Mountain View Corridor - which would stretch along the west side of Utah and Salt Lake counties - is one of seven major-capacity road projects UDOT hopes to fund. The others include two sections of I-15, Interstate 80 near Parleys Canyon, 2100 South in Salt Lake County, U.S. 6 and a southern corridor near St. George.

With a $16.5 billion funding deficit projected through 2030, UDOT is considering generating the money by making the Mountain View Corridor a toll road. If the transportation commission approves the user fee after an analysis this September, construction could begin in 2009.

But Lehi Mayor Howard Johnson questions how MAG and UDOT are examining their options.

He argues extending the corridor along the west side of Utah Lake would save drivers thousands of dollars every day in gas money.

"It's a totally different way of analyzing it," Johnson says. "It's our public's money."

Johnson concedes he doesn't know if he's "totally right," but he still wants to collect data to present to MAG.

Not every northern Utah County mayor supports Johnson's idea.

At this point, Lindon Mayor Jeff Acerson says, an east-side route is inevitable. But he wants it connecting to I-15 not near Pleasant Grove but farther south in Orem or Provo.

"If the majority of that traffic doesn't want to drop into Lindon, then why drop them into Lindon?" he asks. "You're going to have a major impact there, and it's going to potentially slow things down."

Meanwhile, Lehi's Main Street continues to be a popular I-15 access point for burgeoning Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain, creating what Johnson calls a "parking lot."

"They have no place to go except down Lehi Main Street," he said.

Anticipated growth in the Traverse Mountain area and continued commercial development serve to create more concern for the mayor.

But, Cook says, Lehi simply is a strategic location.

"That just seems to be part of [Lehi's] lot."

tpeterson@sltrib.com

Mountain View Corridor: What is it?

The proposed corridor would run from Interstate 80, west of Salt Lake City, along the west side of the Salt Lake Valley and into Utah County, terminating just north of Lindon. Planning for roads and transit along the Salt Lake Valley segment has long been in the works. Originally, the Mountain View Corridor was part of the so-called Legacy Highway, proposed in 1996 by then-Gov. Mike Leavitt, to run from Brigham City to Nephi. Only one segment - the Legacy Parkway, between Farmington and North Salt Lake - is under construction. For more information, visit the Web site at http:// www.udot.utah.gov/mountainview