"Utah has an abnormal amount of interstate trucking going through it because of I-80 and I-15," said Utah Trucking Association executive director David Creer.

According to Creer, thousands of interstate trucks — the number of which is estimated to increase annually by 6 percent — pass through Utah County on I-15 on a daily basis.

Exactly how many trucks actually need to stop along I-15 is hard to identify, so Johnson wants to raise money to study how many trucks would use a western corridor if they didn't have to stop in any of Utah County's major cities like Provo, Orem and Lehi.

Johnson says the study could possibly be conducted by tracking the license plate of a truck as it passes through Santaquin, and timing how long it takes for the truck to make it to Lehi.

"If I can get the money to do the study, and the study comes out the way we kind of think it will, we can show the (alternative corridor) would be cost effective," Johnson said.

For Creer, a western route would be a welcome alternative to driving through Utah Valley.

"I think it's absolutely really-forward thinking," Creer said. "It's really solving a problem now that's going to be there in the future, no matter what happens. ... This would take a large percentage of your truck traffic off of I-15. I think the more the public knows about this, I would think they would think the same thing."

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E-mail: achoate@desnews.com